Module I: Part B

Bhanu Chander Balusa

Sr. Assistant Professor
SCOPE
 Computer Architecture
• Abstract representation of the components of the
computer and its organization is called architecture of a
computer System.
• The following parts are the key components of a
computer system.
•Central processing unit
•Storage unit
•I/O unit.
 ENIAC
• It is the first general purpose digital computer.
• Programmed manually with switches and cables.

• image courtesy :www.computerhope.com

 Major hurdles of ENIAC
• Size is too high

• Huge space required to keep the system.

• Plugging or unplugging the cables or switches was

required to alter the program

• So the job of entering the instructions and altering

the instructions with switches and cables were
absolutely hard.
• If the set of instructions to the computer (i.e.
program) could be represented in a storage suitable
for performing tasks, then the process of
programming could be easier.

• If the data stored along with set of instructions,

programming process could be facilitated.

• These reasons motivated the development of stored

program concept.
 Stored Program Concept
•Stored program concept is introduced by John
von Neumann in 1940s.
•The idea of a stored program is to store the
instructions and data electronically as binary
numbers in a storage space associated with a
computer.
•The storage space is called as memory.
•Any data such as input or instruction is stored as
a binary number in the memory.
How to implement the Stored-
Program Concept in reality?
•To Implement the stored-program concept,
there are multiple layers of abstractions required
both in the hardware and software.

•The most important among them is the

instruction set architecture (ISA) -abstraction
between the lowest level software interface and
the underlying hardware.
 Von Neumann machine

Image courtesy: www.medium.com

Von Neumann Architecture
Control Unit

Central Processing Unit

Arithmetic and
Logic Unit
Output
Device
Input
Device
Address
Bus Data
Bus

Storage unit/ Memory

Unit
Stores both instructions and data
 Von Neumann architecture
• There are four sub-components in von Neumann architecture:
– Memory
– IO devices such as input and output devices
– Arithmetic-Logic Unit
– Control Unit
• There is a 5th key player in the architecture, i.e. a wire, or
bus, that connects the components together
• Bus is used for the data flows from one sub-component to
another.
• Three types of buses i.e. communication lines are there:
address lines, data lines and control lines.
 Von Neumann Architecture
• Major principles
– Data and instructions stored together in the storage
unit / Memory unit.
– Memory unit is a collection of locations and each
location is designated with an address.
– Central processing unit fetches the instruction and
data from the memory unit.
– The central processing unit process the data
– Program and data cannot be accessed simultaneously
 The working of von Neumann model
• The central processing unit, decides the
instruction to be executed next and keep its
address in the address line i.e. address bus.
• The address bus is a uni-directional bus
connected from central processing unit to
memory unit.
• From the memory unit, the instruction or data
placed into the data bus which carries data from
the memory to the central processing unit.
 Working continues…
• The instructions gets decoded at the control unit.
• Processor executes the task according to the
instruction.
• The arithmetic and logical operations are
performed in the arithmetic and logic unit(ALU)
• The execution of program is a sequential process,
other than branching instruction execution.
• The output of the execution may store in the
memory or send to the output unit.
 Types of instructions
• Data Transfer Instructions – transfers data from a source
to a destination. The source and destination can be
memory locations or registers that are associated with CPU.

• Arithmetic Instructions–performs arithmetic operations

such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division etc. It
is performed by ALU.

• Logical Instructions- Performs logical operations

• Control transfer instructions – The flow of sequential

execution can be changed with a branch instruction, it can
be made according to any condition.
Harvard Architecture
 Harvard Architecture
• Principles
– In Harvard architecture concept, Memory for
data was separated from the memory for
instruction. This concept is known as the
– Parallel access of data and instructions are
possible
– Modern processors uses Harvard architecture
 Advantages of Harvard Architecture
• Separate data path and instruction path is
available.
• Fetching of data and instructions can be done
simultaneously
• Different sized cells can be allowed in both
the memories.
Comparison of von Neumann and
Harvard Architecture
 Performance of computer

• Clock is used to synchronize the working of a

unit
• Clock Cycle: Discrete time intervals at which
the events happen in a computer system
– The length of each clock cycle is considered as
clock period.
– A clock period is also called tick, clock tick etc.
 Performance matrix of a computer
system
• Execution time: It is the time taken to finish a
task
• - CPU execution time is a combination of user
CPU time and system CPU time
• Throughput: It is defined as the total quantity
of completed work in a specific period of
time.
 Relation between the time of
execution and performance
• For a given task, in order to maximize the
performance of a computer, we need to
minimize the time required for execution or
response time.
• For a computer system A, the performance is
calculated by the following formula
Performance of A= 1/Execution time of A
i.e. PerformanceA= 1/Execution timeA
 Continued…
• i.e. we assume two computers X and Y, the
relation between the performances can be
represented by the below formula, if the
performance of X is more than the
performance of Y.
 Continued…
• Computer X is ‘n’ times faster than computer Y
can be represented by the following formula,
 CPU performance and its factors

The above formula tells that the CPU performance can

be improved by reducing either the number of clock
cycles required for a program or by reducing the length
of the clock cycle.
 Performance Evaluation
• The gain in performance can be achieved by
improving some resources of a computer. It
can be calculated using Amdhal’s law.
• Amdhal’s law states that, the performance
improvement to be gained from using some
faster mode of execution is limited by the
fraction of the time the faster mode can be
used.
 Amdhal’s law
• Amdhal’s law defines speed up
 Sample Problem
• Consider a CPU used in Web servicing. We need to
enhance the processor by increasing the
computation speed 10 times faster on computation
process in web service applications. We assume that,
30% of the time the original processor is spending for
computation process and 70% of the time is waiting
for the i/o devices. By incorporating the
enhancement, then, what will be the overall speed
up gain?
 Solution
• Fractionenhanced=30% =0.3
• Speedenhanced =10
• Speedupoverall = 1/(1-0.3)+(0.3/10)
= 1/0.7+0.03
=1/0.73
͌ 1.369
 References
• Computer Architecture- A Quantitative
Approach by John L. Hennessy, David
A.Patterson
• Computer Organization by Car-Hamacher,5th
edition
• Computer Organization and Architecture by
william Stallings