Computer Organization
What is Technology?
Bran Ferren:
Douglas Adams:
What is a Computer?
a simple question
so lets begin with a simple answer:
task: try to write down 5 points which can describe any
computer
What is a Computer?
What is a Computer?
Computer as Machine
Organization
Architecture
or even possible
Principle of Equivalence of
Hardware and Software
Any task done by software can also be done using
hardware, and any operation performed directly by
hardware can be done using software.
~ Null & Lobur in Computer Organization & Architecture
Principle of Equivalence of
Hardware and Software
or
Principle of Equivalence of
Hardware and Software
benefits:
higher speed
possibly cheaper to initially produce
possibly more reliable
downfalls:
A Potted History
Generation
Time Period
Key Technology
pre 1945
mechanical devices
1945-1955
1955-1965
transistors
1965-1980
integrated circuits
1980-present
ENIAC
worked in base 10
ENIAC
US Army photograph
solid state
consumes less power than vacuum tube
more reliable
Technology Used
1951
vacuum tube
1965
transistor
35
1975
integrated circuit
900
1995
VLSI
2,400,000
2005
Ultra LSI
6,200,000,000
Figure 1.11, Chapter 1, Computer Organization & Design
Moores Law
the density of transistors in an integrated circuit will double
every year
~ Gordon Moore 1965
revised prediction:
the density of silicon chips doubles every 18 months
but is it true?
More Moores
Intel now believe that the density of silicon chips is doubling every 30 months
tick-tock strategy:
Level 6: User
applications
other levels invisible to most users most of the time
Level 2: Machine
but given the one-to-one relation to assembly, only a lunatic would try
to code in pure machine language
Level 1: Control
named after John von Neumann, who published the first paper describing it
consists of three hardware systems:
Fetch-Execute Cycle
(or the von Neumann execution cycle) has 4 steps per iteration:
1. the control unit fetches the next program instruction from
memory, using the program counter to determine where the
instruction is located
2. the instruction is decoded into a language which the ALU can
understand
3. any data operands required to execute the instruction are
fetched from memory and placed into registers within the CPU
4. the ALU executes the instruction and places the results in
registers or memory
examples include:
neural networks
cellular automata
quantum computation
parallel computers
Parallel Computers
Common Prefixes
usually referring to these
- but not always
To Summarise
References