Motivation
A computer is the combination of two distinct parts: Computer hardware is the collection of physical elements that comprise a computer system Computer software refers to the programs installed on that hardware This course is about the hardware of the computers. What the hardware components within a computer are, how those components are built, how they communicate, and eventually how the computer hardware works. Knowing how the hardware works will help you understand how the software works as well. Knowing at least something on even if not much details about the hardware of the toy you are using will probably make you a better professional.
Transmission Impairments
Sent and received signals are not same not perfect pairs Main types of transmission impairments: Attenuation Delay Distortion Noise
Transmission Impairments
For analog signals, impairments can degrade signal quality
Attenuation
Attenuation is reduction / loss in signal power When a signal travels through a medium, it loses some of its energy Main challenges in combating attenuation: (1) received signal must have: sufficient strength so that receiver can detect signal not too strong to overload transmitter / receiver circuitry (2) signal must maintain a level sufficiently higher than noise, to be received without error
Attenuation
To compensate for loss, analog amplifiers / digital repeaters are used to boost the signal at regular intervals
Delay Distortion
Delay Distortion: change in signals form / shape Each signal component has its own propagation speed through a medium, and therefore, its own delay in arriving at the final destination Critical for composite (both analog and digital) signals
Noise
Noise: unwanted signals that get inserted / generated somewhere between transmitter and receiver Noise is the major limiting factor in communications system performance Presence of noise limits the reliability with which the receiver can correctly determine the information that was transmitted
When analog signal is transmitted over long distance, it becomes distorted due to annetuation, delay distortion, noise, and possible interference Transmitters are used to increase the amplitude However, the noise will not be eliminated in the received signal
Digital Transmission
Suppose that a string of 0s and 1s is conveyed by a sequence of positive and negative voltages A digital regenerator is used to recover the data from the digital dignal
Analog signal: signal that is continuous in time and can assume an infinite number of values in a given range continuous in time and value Discrete (digital) signal signal that is continuous in time and can assume only a limited number of values maintains a constant level and then changes to another constant level
Sampling
Sampling is the reduction of a continuous signal to a discrete signal. In sampling data, available number of values (which is actually infinite) in analog domain is mapped to a limited number of values in digital domain. It is converting unlimited / vast amount of values to limited set of numbers. The relation between floating point and integer numbers is analogous to this. If you want to sample a set of floating point values, say the values between 0.0 and 9.0, you may create the sample values as {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9} if the sampling interval is 1. If you use 2 as the sampling interval, the set of values becomes {0, 2, 4, 6, 8}.
Sampling
What is a computer?
A computer is a general-purpose device that can be programmed to carry out a set of arithmetic and logical operations. Any problem can be mapped into a set of logical and arithmetical operations; hence a computer can practically solve all problems.
Harvard architecture
Harvard architecture features separate places for: instruction memory data memory. With this type of a design, both data and instructions could be operated on independently. Another subtle difference is that Von Neumann architecture permits self-modifying programs, whereas Harvard architecture does not. Since the same memory space in the von Neumann architecture may hold data and program code, it is possible for an instruction to change the instruction in another portion of the code space. In the Harvard Architecture, loads and stores can only occur in the data memory, so self-modifying code is harder
Harvard Architecture
Harvard Architecture
ENIAC
ENIAC shorten the time to calculate a table from 20 hours to 30 seconds ENIAC had shown that vacuum tube computers were fast and feasible During the next decade, vacuum tube systems continued to improve and were commercially successful ENIAC is recognized as the first all-electronic, generalpurpose digital computer. ENIAC used 17,468 vacuum tubes, occupied 180 meter square of floor space, weighed 30 tons, and consumed 174 kilowatts of power ENIAC had a memory capacity of about 1,000 information bits (about 20 10-digit decimal numbers) and used punched cards to store data.
ENIAC
Vacuum Tubes
Vacuum Tubes
A vacuum tube is a device controlling electric current through a vacuum in a sealed container The container is often thin transparent glass in a roughly cylindrical shape Vacuum tubes are used for rectification, amplification, switching, or similar processing or creation of electrical signals.
2. Transistor (19541965)
The vacuum tube technology of the first generation was not very dependable Vacuum tube systems often experienced more downtime than uptime In 1948, three researchers with Bell Laboratories invented the transistor This new technology not only revolutionized devices such as televisions and radios, but also pushed the computer industry into a new generation Because transistors consume less power than vacuum tubes, are smaller, and work more reliably, the circuitry in computers consequently became smaller and more reliable
Advantages of IC
1. Cost is low because the chips, with all their components, are printed as a unit rather than being constructed one transistor at a time much less material is used to construct a packaged IC die than to construct a discrete circuit. 2. Performance is high because the components switch quickly and consume little power as a result of the small size and close proximity of the components
Questions?