Computer Organization

and Data Storage

Lecture 3
Objectives
❑ Define the Turing model of a computer

❑ Define the von Neuman model of a computer

❑ List the three subsystems of a computer

❑
Understand the role of each of three subsystems of a
computer

1.2
Objectives
❑ To list five different data types used in a computer.

❑
To describe how different data is stored inside the
computer as bit patterns.

❑
To describe how integers are stored in a computer using
unsigned format.

❑
To describe how integers are stored in a computer using
sign-and-magnitude format.

❑
To describe how integers are stored in two’s complement
format.
1.3
Objectives:
❑ To describe how real numbers are stored in a computer using
floating-point format.

❑ To describe how text is stored in a computer using one of the

various encoding systems.

❑ To describe how audio is stored in a computer using sampling,

quantization, and encoding.

❑ To describe how images are stored in a computer using raster

and vector graphics schemes.
❑ To describe how video is stored in a computer as images
changing in time. 1.4
• Please refer to your text book
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 3 Data storage
• Chapter 5 Computer Organization
Computer Organization
Introduction
• A Turing machine is a hypothetical machine thought of by the
mathematician Alan Turing in 1936. Despite its simplicity, the machine can
simulate ANY computer algorithm, no matter how complicated it is!

• Above is a very simple representation of a Turing machine. It consists of an

infinitely-long tape which acts like the memory in a typical computer, or any
other form of data storage.
• The squares on the tape are usually blank at the start and can be written with
symbols. In this case, the machine can only process the symbols 0 and 1 and "
" (blank), and is thus said to be a 3-symbol Turing machine.
Introduction
• At any one time, the machine has a head which is positioned over one of
the squares on the tape. With this head, the machine can perform three
very basic operations:
• Read the symbol on the square under the head.
• Edit the symbol by writing a new symbol or erasing it.
• Move the tape left of right by one square so that the machine can read and edit the
symbol on a neighbouring square.
• Just as a Turing machine reads a symbol from a tape and, according to that
symbol and its internal state, writes another symbol, changes state and
moves the tape, a von Neumann machine reads a symbol string from
memory and according to the value of that string and the current state of its
registers, writes another string to memory, changes the state of its registers
and moves to read another memory location.
Introduction
• Computers built on the Turing machine store data in
their memory. Around 1944-1945, John Von Neumann
proposed that, since program and data are logically
the same, programs should also be stored in the
memory of the computer.
• Computers built on the von Neumann model divide the
computer hardware into three broad categories or
subsystems:
1- central processing unit (CPU)
2- main memory
3- input/output subsystem 1.9
Introduction

1.10
Computer Hardware (subsystems)
Introduction

1.11
Computer Hardware (subsystems)
Introduction

Inside the System Unit

12
Introduction

Computer Hardware
The Motherboard

• Computer chip: A very small pieces of silicon or other semi-

conducting material onto which integrated circuits are embedded
• Circuit board: A thin board containing computer chips and other
electronic components
• Motherboard or system board: The main circuit board inside the
system unit
• All devices must connect to the motherboard
• External devices (monitors, keyboards, mice, printers) typically
connect by plugging into a port exposed through the exterior of
the system unit
• Wireless devices connect through a transceiver or wireless
networking technology (like Bluetooth)

14
The CPU

• Central processing unit (CPU): circuitry and components packaged

together and connected directly to the motherboard
• Does the vast majority of processing for a computer
• Also called a processor; called a microprocessor when talking about
personal computers
• Dual-core CPU: Contains the processing components (cores) of
two separate processors on a single CPU
• Quad-core CPU: Contains 4 cores
• Typically different CPUs for desktop computers, portable
computers, servers, mobile devices, etc.
• Often made by Intel or AMD

15
The CPU
The central processing unit (CPU) performs operations
on data. In most architectures it has three parts: an
arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a control unit, and a set of
registers, fast storage locations.

1.16
The CPU

1.17
The CPU

CPUs today typically have multiple core 18

The CPU

19
The CPU
Processing Speed

• CPU clock speed: One measurement of processing speed

• Measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz)
• Higher CPU clock speed = more instructions processed per second
• Alternate measure of processing speed is the number of
instructions a CPU can process per second
• Megaflops, gigaflops, teraflops
• Other factors (CPU architecture, memory, bus speed, amount of
RAM, etc.) also affect the overall processing speed of a computer
• Benchmark tests: Can be used to evaluate overall processing
speed

20
 Assignment

• Prepare a comparison table between all Intel processors starting from 8086
in 1978 up to the latest i9 of 2019
• Compare between the different generations of the ARM processors
Main Memory
• Main memory is the second major subsystem in a
computer.
• Memory consists of a collection of storage locations,
each with a unique identifier, called an address.
• Data is transferred to and from memory in groups of
bits called words.
• If the word is 8 bits, it is referred to as a byte.
1.22
Main Memory

• Memory refers to chip based storage

• RAM (random access memory): Computer’s main memory
• Consists of chips arrange on a circuit board called a memory module
plugged into the motherboard
• Stores essential parts of operating system, programs, and data the
computer is currently using
• Adequate RAM is needed to run programs
• Volatile: Contents of RAM is lost when the computer is shut off
• Most personal computers use DDR-RAM(Double Data Rate dynamic
random access memory)
• MRAM and PRAM: non-volatile RAM under development

23
Main Memory

Main Memory

1.24
Main Memory
Address Space

Memory units
1.25
Word Size and Cache Memory

• Word size: The amount of data that a CPU can manipulate at one
time
• Typically 32 or 64 bits
• Cache memory: Special group of very fast memory chips located
on or close to the CPU
• Level 1 is fastest, then Level 2, then Level 3
• More cache memory typically means faster processing
• Usually internal cache (built into the CPU)
• Often some cache dedicated to each core; may also have some shared
cache accessible by any core

26
 Assignment

• Prepare a report about the different types of ROM (ROM – PROM –

EPROM- EEPROM – Flash )
• Prepare a report about the different types of RAM (SRAM – DRAM –
SDRAM- RDRAM - DDRAM )
Main Memory

Main Hierarchy
1.28
Cache Memory
1.29
Input/output System
• The third major subsystem in a computer is the
collection of devices referred to as the input/output
(I/O) subsystem.
• This subsystem allows a computer to communicate
with the outside world, and to store programs and data
even when the power is off.
• Input/output devices can be divided into two broad
categories: non-storage and storage devices. 1.30
Input/output System

Input and output devices

Subsystem Interconnection
• The previous sections outlined the characteristics
of the three subsystems (CPU, main memory, and
I/O) in a stand-alone computer.
• We now explore how these three subsystems are
interconnected. The interconnection plays an
important role because information needs to be
exchanged between the three subsystems.

1.32
Subsystem Interconnection

Connecting CPU and Memory

1.33
Subsystem Interconnection

Connecting I/O devices to the buses

1.34
Subsystem Interconnection
Bus Width, Bus Speed, and Bandwidth
• Bus: An electronic path over which
data can travel
• Bus width: The number of wires in
the bus over which data can travel
• Bus width and speed determine the
throughput (or bandwidth) of the
bus
Bus width.
• Bandwidth :The amount of data that
can be transferred by the bus in a
given time period
• A wider bus can transfer more data
at one time that a narrow bus
35
Data Storage
Data types
Data today come in different forms including numbers, text,
audio, image, and video.

Different Data Types

1.37
Data inside the computer

• All data types are transformed into a uniform representation when they are
stored in a computer and transformed back to their original form when they
are retrieved.
• The universal representation is called a bit pattern.

A bit pattern
Data inside the computer

Storage of different data types

Data inside the computer
STORING NUMBERS

• A number is changed to the binary system before

being stored in the computer memory
• However, there are still two issues that need to be
handled:
• How to show the decimal point.
• How to store the sign of the number.
1.40
Data inside the computer
STORING NUMBERS

Fixed point representation of integers

Data inside the computer

Unsigned Representation

• An unsigned integer is an integer that can never be negative and can take
only zero or positive values.
• Applications of unsigned integers
• Counting
• Addressing
• Storing other data types such as text, images, audio and video.
Data inside the computer

STORING NUMBERS
• Signed Integers can be represented using
• Sign-and-magnitude representation
• Two’s complement representation
• Two’s complement representation is the standard representation for storing
integers in computers today.

Sign-and-magnitude representation
Data inside the computer
STORING NUMBERS

1.44

Summary of integer representations

Data inside the computer
STORING TEXT
• A section of text in any language is a sequence of
symbols used to represent an idea in that language.
• Numbers are treated separately, as we explained in the
previous section, and symbols (., ?, :, ; , …, !) to
represent punctuation.
• Other symbols such as blank, newline, and tab are
used for text alignment and readability. 1.45
Data inside the computer

STORING TEXT

Representing symbols using bit pattern

1.46
Data inside the computer
STORING TEXT

Number of symbols and bit patterns

1.47
Data inside the computer
STORING IMAGES

• Images are stored in computers using two different

techniques:
• raster graphics
• vector graphics.

1.48
Data inside the computer
STORING IMAGES

Some colors defined in True-Color

1.49
Data inside the computer
STORING AUDIO

An Audio Signal

1.50

Sampling An Audio
Data inside the computer
STORING VIDEO

• Video is a representation of images (called frames) over

time.
• A movie consists of a series of frames shown one after
another to create the illusion of motion.
• In other words, video is the representation of information
that changes in space (single image) and in time (a series
of images). 1.51
Summary and Discussion