Computer Organization

Topics covered:
Course outline and schedule
Introduction
 General information

Course :Computer Organization

Instructor : Assoc. Prof. Abdulwahab AlSammak
Email : [email protected]
Lecture time : Thursday 10:00pm – 12:00 pm.
Office hours : By appointment.
(I will hang around for a few minutes at the end of
each class).
Online Resources: http:// bu.edu.eg/staff/abdelwahabalsammak3-
courses/10596/files
Teaching Assistant: Eng. Mufedah Hussien
Email : [email protected]
Office hours : Discuss with the TA

Slides Author :Swapna S. Gokhale

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 Course Objective

 Describe the general organization and architecture of

computers.
 Identify computers’ major components and study their
functions.
 Introduce hardware design issues of modern computer
architectures.
 Learn assembly language programming.
 Build the required skills to read and research the
current literature in computer architecture.

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 Textbooks

•“Computer Organization,” by Carl Hamacher, Zvonko

Vranesic and Safwat Zaky. Fifth Edition McGraw-Hill,
2002.

•“SPARC Architecture, Assembly Language Programming

and C,” Richard P. Paul, Prentice Hall, 2000.

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 Course topics
1. Introduction (Chapter 1): Basic concepts, overall
organization.
2. Addressing methods (Chapter 2): fetch/execute cycle, basic
addressing modes, instruction sequencing, assembly language
and stacks. CISC vs. RISC architectures.
3. Logic Circuits Fundamentals (Appendix A): Logic Gates,
Combinational Circuits, Sequential circuits
4. CPU architecture (Chapter 7): Single-bus CPU, Multiple-bus
CPU Hardware control, and Microprogrammed control.
5. Arithmetic (Chapter 6): Integer arithmetic and floating-
point arithmetic.
6. Memory architecture (Chapter 5): Memory hierarchy,
Primary memory, Cache memory, virtual memory.
7. Input/Output organization (Chapter 4): I/O device
addressing, I/O data transfers, Synchronization, DMA,
Interrupts, Channels, Bus transfers, and Interfacing.
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Grading System

Midterm Exam : (25)

- Addressing methods, CISC and RISC architectures.

Lab Assignments : (25)

-7 homework assignments.

-Final : (75)
- All topics.

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 Course topics, exams and assignment calendar
Week #1 :
- Introduction
Week #2 :
- Addressing methods
- Lab. Assignment 1.
Week #3 :
-Addressing methods.
Week #4 :
- Logic Circuit Fundamentals
- Lab. Assignment 2.
Week #5 :
- CPU Architecture.
- Lab. Assignment 3.
Week #6 :
- CPU Architecture.
- Lab. Assignment 4.
Week #7 :
- Arithmetic.

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 Course topics, exams and assignment calendar

Week #8 :
Midterm Exam
Week #9 :
- Arithmetic
Week #10:
- Memory architecture.
- Lab. Assignment 5.
Week #11 :
- Memory organization
- Lab. Assignment 6.
Week #12 :
- I/O organization.
Week #13
- I/O devices.
- Lab. Assignment 7.
Week #14:
- Pipelining
Week #15:
- Final Exam
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 Grading policy

•Grading of assignments/exams is handled by the TA, if you cannot

resolve a problem with the TA, see me.
•Assignments may be submitted by email. Hard copy will also be
accepted, but you have to submit in the department office to stamp
the date. Please submit all the assignments to the TA.
• Late assignments are penalized by a loss of 33% per day late (so 3
days late is as late as you can get). Solution will be posted on the
course web page No assignments will be accepted after the solution
is posted.
•The weeks during which exams will be held have been announced.
The actual day of that week, (Tuesday) when the exam will be held
will be announced two weeks prior to the exam.
If you have any conflict with the exam date, please see me in
advance.

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 Important prerequisite material

•Digital Logic Course is fundamental to the Computer

Organization Course.

•Review issues in:

- Basic computer organization: CPU, Memory, I/O,
Registers.
- Fundamentals of combinatorial design and
sequential design.
- Simple ALU, simple register design.

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 Reading

•Reading the text is imperative. )‫إلزامي( أساسي‬

•Computer architecture especially processor design,
changes rapidly.
You really have to keep up with the changes in the
industry.
This is especially important for job interviews later.

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 Feedback

Please provide informal feedback early and often,

before the formal review process.

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Content Coverage
 What is a computer?

 a computer is a sophisticated electronic calculating machine

that:
 Accepts input information,
 Processes the information according to a list of
internally stored instructions and
 Produces the resulting output information.
 Functions performed by a computer are:
 Accepting information to be processed as input.
 Storing a list of instructions to process the information.
 Processing the information according to the list of
instructions.
 Providing the results of the processing as output.
 What are the functional units of a computer?

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 Functional units of a computer
Input unit accepts Arithmetic and logic unit(ALU):
information: •Performs the desired
•Human operators, operations on the input
•Electromechanical devices (keyboard) information as determined
•Other computers by instructions in the memory

Memory
Arithmetic
Input
Instr1 & Logic
Instr2
Instr3
Data1
Output Data2 Control

I/O Processor
Stores
information: Control unit coordinates
Output unit sends various actions
results of processing: •Instructions,
•Data •Input,
•To a monitor display, •Output
•To a printer •Processing

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 Information in a computer -- Instructions

 Instructions specify commands to:

 Transfer information within a computer (e.g., from memory to
ALU)
 Transfer of information between the computer and I/O devices
(e.g., from keyboard to computer, or computer to printer)
 Perform arithmetic and logic operations (e.g., Add two numbers,
Perform a logical AND).
 A sequence of instructions to perform a task is called a
program, which is stored in the memory.
 Processor fetches instructions that make up a program from
the memory and performs the operations stated in those
instructions.
 What do the instructions operate upon?

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 Information in a computer -- Data

 Data are the “operands” upon which instructions operate.

 Data could be:
 Numbers,
 Encoded characters.
 Data, in a broad sense means any digital information.
 Computers use data that is encoded as a string of binary
digits called bits.

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 Input unit
Binary information must be presented to a computer in a specific format. This
task is performed by the input unit:
- Interfaces with input devices.
- Accepts binary information from the input devices.
- Presents this binary information in a format expected by the computer.
- Transfers this information to the memory or processor.
Real world Computer

Memory

Keyboard
Audio input
Input Unit
……

Processor

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 Memory unit
 Memory unit stores instructions and data.
 Recall, data is represented as a series of bits.
 To store data, memory unit thus stores bits.
 Processor reads instructions and reads/writes data from/to
the memory during the execution of a program.
 In theory, instructions and data could be fetched one bit at a
time.
 In practice, a group of bits is fetched at a time.
 Group of bits stored or retrieved at a time is termed as “word”
 Number of bits in a word is termed as the “word length” of a
computer.
 In order to read/write to and from memory, a processor
should know where to look:
 “Address” is associated with each word location.

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 Memory unit (contd..)
 Processor reads/writes to/from memory based on the
memory address:
 Access any word location in a short and fixed amount of time
based on the address.
 Random Access Memory (RAM) provides fixed access time
independent of the location of the word.
 Access time is known as “Memory Access Time”.

 Memory and processor have to “communicate” with each

other in order to read/write information.
 In order to reduce “communication time”, a small amount of
RAM (known as Cache) is tightly coupled with the processor.
 Modern computers have three to four levels of RAM units with
different speeds and sizes:
 Fastest, smallest known as Cache
 Slowest, largest known as Main memory.

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 Memory unit (contd..)

 Primary storage of the computer consists of RAM units.

 Fastest, smallest unit is Cache.
 Slowest, largest unit is Main Memory.

 Primary storage is insufficient to store large amounts of

data and programs.
 Primary storage can be added, but it is expensive.
 Store large amounts of data on secondary storage devices:
 Magnetic disks and tapes,
 Optical disks (CD-ROMS).
 Access to the data stored in secondary storage in slower, but
take advantage of the fact that some information may be
accessed infrequently.
 Cost of a memory unit depends on its access time, lesser
access time implies higher cost.

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 Arithmetic and logic unit (ALU)

 Operations are executed in the Arithmetic and Logic Unit

(ALU).
 Arithmetic operations such as addition, subtraction.
 Logic operations such as comparison of numbers.
 In order to execute an instruction, operands need to be
brought into the ALU from the memory.
 Operands are stored in general purpose registers available in
the ALU.
 Access times of general purpose registers are faster than the
cache.
 Results of the operations are stored back in the memory or
retained in the processor for immediate use.

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 Output unit
•Computers represent information in a specific binary form. Output units:
- Interface with output devices.
- Accept processed results provided by the computer in specific binary form.
- Convert the information in binary form to a form understood by an
output device.

Computer Real world

Memory Printer
Graphics display
Speakers
……
Output Unit

Processor

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 Control unit

 Operation of a computer can be summarized as:

 Accepts information from the input units (Input unit).
 Stores the information (Memory).
 Processes the information (ALU).
 Provides processed results through the output units (Output
unit).
 Operations of Input unit, Memory, ALU and Output unit are
coordinated by Control unit.
 Instructions control “what” operations take place (e.g. data
transfer, processing).
 Control unit generates timing signals which determines
“when” a particular operation takes place.

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 How are the functional units connected?
•For a computer to achieve its operation, the functional units need to
communicate with each other.
•In order to communicate, they need to be connected.

Input Output Memory Processor

Bus

•Functional units may be connected by a group of parallel wires.

•The group of parallel wires is called a bus.
•Each wire in a bus can transfer one bit of information.
•The number of parallel wires in a bus is equal to the word length of
a computer

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Organization of cache and main memory

Main Cache
memory memory Processor

Bus

Why is the access time of the cache memory lesser than the
access time of the main memory?

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Computer Components: Top-Level View
Basic Operational Concepts
A Partial Program Execution Example
A Partial Program Execution Example
 Interrupt
 Normal execution of programs may be interrupted if some
device requires urgent servicing
 To deal with the situation immediately, the normal execution of
the current program must be interrupted

 Procedure of interrupt operation

 The device raises an interrupt signal
 The processor provides the requested service by executing an
appropriate interrupt-service routine
 The state of the processor is first saved before servicing the
interrupt
• Normally, the contents of the PC, the general registers, and some
control information are stored in memory
 When the interrupt-service routine is completed, the state of the
processor is restored so that the interrupted program may
continue
 Classes of Interrupts
 Program
 Generated by some condition that occurs as a result of an
instruction execution such as arithmetic overflow, division
by zero, attempt to execute an illegal machine instruction,
or reference outside a user’s allowed memory space
 Timer
 Generated by a timer within the processor. This allows the
operating system to perform certain functions on a regular
basis
 I/O
 Generated by an I/O controller, to signal normal completion
of an operation or to signal a variety of error conditions
 Hardware failure
 Generated by a failure such as power failure or memory
parity error
 Bus Structures

 A group of lines that serves a connecting path for several

devices is called a bus
 In addition to the lines that carry the data, the bus must
have lines for address and control purposes
 The simplest way to interconnect functional units is to use a
single bus, as shown below
 Drawbacks of the Single Bus Structure
 The devices connected to a bus vary widely in their speed of
operation
 Some devices are relatively slow, such as printer and
keyboard
 Some devices are considerably fast, such as optical disks
 Memory and processor units operate are the fastest parts of
a computer
 Efficient transfer mechanism thus is needed to cope with this
problem
 A common approach is to include buffer registers with the
devices to hold the information during transfers
 An another approach is to use two-bus structure and an
additional transfer mechanism
• A high-performance bus, a low-performance, and a bridge
for transferring the data between the two buses. ARMA
Bus belongs to this structure
 Software
 In order for a user to enter and run an application
program, the computer must already contain some system
software in its memory

 System software is a collection of programs that are

executed as needed to perform functions such as
 Receiving and interpreting user commands
 Running standard application programs such as word
processors, etc, or games
 Managing the storage and retrieval of files in secondary
storage devices
 Controlling I/O units to receive input information and
produce output results
 Software

 Translating programs from source form prepared by

the user into object form consisting of machine
instructions

 Linking and running user-written application programs

with existing standard library routines, such as
numerical computation packages

 System software is thus responsible for the

coordination of all activities in a computing system
 Operating System
 Operating system (OS)
 This is a large program, or actually a collection of routines,
that is used to control the sharing of and interaction among
various computer units as they perform application programs
 The OS routines perform the tasks required to assign computer
resource to individual application programs
 These tasks include assigning memory and magnetic disk
space to program and data files, moving data between
memory and disk units, and handling I/O operations
 In the following, a system with one processor, one disk, and one
printer is given to explain the basics of OS
 Assume that part of the program’s task involves reading a
data file from the disk into the memory, performing some
computation on the data, and printing the results
User Program and OS Routine Sharing
Multiprogramming or Multitasking
 Performance
 The speed with which a computer executes programs
is affected by the design of its hardware and its
machine language instructions

 Because programs are usually written in a high-level

language, performance is also affected by the
compiler that translates programs into machine
languages

 For best performance, the following factors must be

considered
 Compiler
 Instruction set
 Hardware design
 Performance
 Processor circuits are controlled by a timing signal
called a clock
 The clock defines regular time intervals, called clock cycles
 To execute a machine instruction, the processor
divides the action to be performed into a sequence of
basic steps, such that each step can be completed in
one clock cycle
 Let the length P of one clock cycle, its inverse is the
clock rate, R=1/P
 Basic performance equation
 T=(NxS)/R, where T is the processor time required to
execute a program, N is the number of instruction executions,
and S is the average number of basic steps needed to execute
one machine instruction
 Performance Improvement
 Pipelining and superscalar operation
 Pipelining: by overlapping the execution of successive
instructions
 Superscalar: different instructions are concurrently
executed with multiple instruction pipelines. This means that
multiple functional units are needed
 Clock rate improvement
 Improving the integrated-circuit technology makes
logic circuits faster, which reduces the time needed
to complete a basic step
 Performance Improvement

 Reducing amount of processing done in one basic

step also makes it possible to reduce the clock
period, P.
 However, if the actions that have to be performed
by an instruction remain the same, the number of
basic steps needed may increase
 Reduce the number of basic steps to execute
 Reduced instruction set computers (RISC) and complex
instruction set computers (CISC)