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Multilevel Viewpoint

The document discusses the six levels of a machine, from the lowest digital logic level composed of transistors and gates, to the microarchitecture level containing an ALU and registers, to the instruction set level as the machine language. It continues that the next levels are the operating system level, assembly level for translating to lower languages, and finally the problem-oriented or user level with high-level languages like Java and C++.

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Venus Kalra
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2K views

Multilevel Viewpoint

The document discusses the six levels of a machine, from the lowest digital logic level composed of transistors and gates, to the microarchitecture level containing an ALU and registers, to the instruction set level as the machine language. It continues that the next levels are the operating system level, assembly level for translating to lower languages, and finally the problem-oriented or user level with high-level languages like Java and C++.

Uploaded by

Venus Kalra
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MULTILEVEL VIEWPOINT OF A MACHINE

Our computer is build on various layers:

Software layer(macro architecture)


Instruction Set Architecture
Hardware Layer(micro architecture)

Machines can have six levels.


• The lowest level is called the digital logic level. At the digital logic level, we have objects
called gates, composed of transistors. Each gate has one or more digital inputs (signals
representing 0 or 1) and computes as outputs some function such as AND or OR. They can
be used as registers, or combined for memory.
• The next level is the microarchitecture level. This is a collection of 8 to 32 registers for
memory andALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) to perform arithmetic and logic operations. The
registers are connected to the ALU to form a data path, over which the data flow. The
operation of the data path may be controlled by a microprogram, directly by hardware, or
even by software, in which case the microprogram is the interpreter for instructions at the
next level.
• The next level is called the Instruction set level (ISA level). This is a machine language.
• The next level is the operating system machine level.
• The next level is the Assembly level language. Programs in assembly language need to be
translated into one of the lower level languages.
• The final level is the problem-oriented language level(USER LEVEL). These are high-
level languages such as BASIC, Pascal, FORTRAN, COBOL, C++, Java, etc. They are
translated into lower level languages by compilers. Figure below explains these six levels.

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