Basic Computer Architecture

*Basic Microcomputer Design

• clock synchronizes CPU operations
• control unit (CU) coordinates sequence of execution steps
• ALU performs arithmetic and bitwise processing

data bus

registers

I/O I/O
Central Processor Unit Memory Storage
Device Device
(CPU) Unit
#1 #2

ALU CU clock

control bus

address bus

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 *Basic Microcomputer Design
• Memory Storage Unit: primary memory
• I/O Devices: Input/Output devices
• Data bus: moves data between memory/i/o and registers
• Control bus: determines where data comes from and goes, and
ALU activities
• Address bus: selects where data comes from or goes to
data bus

registers

I/O I/O
Central Processor Unit Memory Storage
Device Device
(CPU) Unit
#1 #2

ALU CU clock

control bus

address bus

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 **Clock
• *synchronizes all CPU and BUS operations
• machine (clock) cycle measures time of a single
operation
• *clock is used to trigger events

one cycle

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 Instruction Execution Cycle

• *Fetch
• *Decode
• *Fetch operands
• *Execute
• *Store output

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 Reading from Memory
• Multiple machine cycles are required when reading from memory,
because it responds much more slowly than the CPU. The steps are:
• Cycle 1: address placed on address bus
• Cycle 2: Read Line (RD) set low
• Cycle 3: CPU waits one cycle for memory to respond
• Cycle 4: Read Line (RD) goes to 1, indicating that the data is on the
data bus
Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3 Cycle 4

CLK

Address
ADDR

RD

Data
DATA

6
 Cache Memory

• High-speed expensive static RAM both inside and

outside the CPU.
• Level-1 cache: inside the CPU
• Level-2 cache: outside the CPU
• Cache hit: when data to be read is already in cache
memory
• Cache miss: when data to be read is not in cache
memory.

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 *How a Program Runs
User

sends program
name to

Operating searches for Current

system program in directory

gets starting
cluster from returns to
System
loads and path
starts
Directory Program
entry

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 *Multitasking
• OS can run multiple programs at the same time.
• Multiple threads of execution within the same
program.
• Scheduler utility assigns a given amount of CPU time
to each running program.
• Rapid switching of tasks
• gives illusion that all programs are running at once
• the processor must support task switching.

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 Components of an IA-32 Microcomputer

• *Motherboard
• *Video output
• *Memory
• *Input-output ports

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 *Motherboard (printed circuit board)
• Heart of a Microcomputer
• CPU socket: provides the mechanical and electrical
connections
• External cache memory and main memory slots
• BIOS (Basic Input-Output System) chips
• Connections for mass storage devices (hard drives,
CD-RONs)
• USB connectors for external devices
• Keyboard and mouse ports
• PCI bus connectors (expansion cards) for sound
cards, graphics cards, data acquisition boards, other
i/o devices

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 *Motherboard
Optional
• Sound synthesizer chip
• Video controller chip
• IDE, parallel, serial, video, joystick, network, and
connectors
• PCI bus connectors (expansion cards)
• Integrated network adapter
• AGP bus connector for a high-speed video card

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 Important Support Processors
• Floating-Point Unit (FPU)
• 8284/82C284 Clock Generator (clock)
• 8259A Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC)
• Handles interrupts from external devices
• 8253 Programmable Interval Timer/Counter
• Interrupts system 18.2 times/second
• Updates system date and clock
• Controls the speaker
• Refreshes RAM memory chips
• 8255 Programmable Parallel Port
• Transfers data to and from the computer
• Commonly used for printers as well as other i/o devices
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 Intel D850MD Motherboard mouse, keyboard,
parallel, serial, and USB
Video
connectors
Audio chip

PCI slots
memory controller hub
Pentium 4 socket
AGP slot

dynamic RAM

Firmware hub

I/O Controller
Speaker Power connector
Battery
Diskette connector
Source: Intel® Desktop Board D850MD/D850MV Technical Product IDE drive connectors
Specification
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 *PCI and PCI Express Bus Architecture
• Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus
• Connecting bridge between CPU and other system
devices
• Memory, hard drives, video controllers, sound cards, and
network controllers
• Provides two-way serial connections between
• Devices, memory, and the processor
• Caries data in packets similar to networks
• Widely supported by graphics controllers
• Transfer rate about 4 Gbytes/second

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 Intel 965 Express Chipset

• Collection of
processor chips
designed to work
together on a specific
type of motherboard
• P965 used in
desktop PC with
either a Core 2 Duo
or Pentium D
processor

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 Intel 965 Express Chipset

• Some features of
P965
• Fast Memory
Access
• I/O Controller
Hub (ICH8/R/DH)
• Supports 10 USB
ports, six PCI
express slots and
networking
• High definition
audio chip

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 *Video Output

• Video controller
• on motherboard, or on expansion card
• AGP (accelerated graphics port technology)*
• Video memory (VRAM)
• Video CRT Display
• uses raster scanning
• horizontal retrace
• vertical retrace
• Direct digital LCD monitors
• no raster scanning required

* This link may change over time.

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 Sample Video Controller (ATI Corp.)

• 128-bit 3D graphics
performance powered by
RAGE™ 128 PRO
• 3D graphics performance
• Intelligent TV-Tuner with
Digital VCR
• TV-ON-DEMAND™
• Interactive Program Guide
• Still image and MPEG-2 motion
video capture
• Video editing
• Hardware DVD video playback
• Video output to TV or VCR

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 *Memory
• ROM
• read-only memory
• EPROM
• erasable programmable read-only memory
• Dynamic RAM (DRAM)
• inexpensive; must be refreshed constantly
• Static RAM (SRAM)
• expensive; used for cache memory; no refresh required
• Video RAM (VRAM)
• dual ported; optimized for constant video refresh
• CMOS RAM
• complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor
• system setup information
• See: Intel platform memory (Intel technology brief: link address may
change)

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 *Input-Output Ports
• USB (universal serial bus)
• intelligent high-speed connection to devices
• up to 12 megabits/second
• USB hub connects multiple devices
• enumeration: computer queries devices
• supports hot connections

Computer
A
B B
Scanner A
A B
Hub Printer
A
Camera
B

A B
Hub Device
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 *Input-Output Ports

• Parallel
• short cable, high speed
• common for printers
• bidirectional, parallel data transfer
• Intel 8255 controller chip

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 *Input-Output Ports (cont)

• Serial
• RS-232 serial port
• one bit at a time
• uses long cables and modems
• 16550 UART (universal asynchronous receiver
transmitter)
• programmable in assembly language

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 Device Interfaces

• ATA host adapters

• intelligent drive electronics (hard drive, CDROM)
• SATA (Serial ATA)
• inexpensive, fast, bidirectional
• FireWire
• high speed (800 MB/sec), many devices at once
• Bluetooth
• small amounts of data, short distances, low power
usage
• Wi-Fi (wireless Ethernet)
• IEEE 802.11 standard, faster than Bluetooth

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 *Levels of Input-Output
• Level 3: High-level language functions
• examples: C++, Java
• portable, convenient, not always the fastest
• Level 2: Operating system
• Application Programming Interface (API) library
• Writing strings to files, reading strings from keyboard,
allocating blocks of memory
• extended capabilities, lots of details to master
• Level 1: BIOS
• drivers that communicate directly with devices
• OS security may prevent application-level code from working
at this level

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 Device Drivers
• Programs that permit the OS to communicate
directly with hardware devices
• Simplifies programming by acting as translator
between a hardware device and the applications or
operating systems that use it
• Programmers can write the higher-level application
code independently of whatever specific hardware
the end-user is using

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 Displaying a String of Characters
When a HLL program displays a string
Application Program Level 3
of characters, the following steps take
place:
OS Function Level 2
• Level 1: The library function calls an
operating system function, passing a
string pointer.
BIOS Function Level 1 • Level 2: The operating system
function uses a loop to call a BIOS
subroutine, passing it the ASCII
Hardware Level 0
code and color of each character.
The operating system calls another
BIOS subroutine to advance the
cursor to the next position on the
screen.
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 Displaying a String of Characters

Application Program Level 3 • Level 1: The BIOS subroutine

receives a character, maps it to a
particular system font, and sends
OS Function Level 2 the character to a hardware port
attached to the video controller card.
• Level 0: The video controller card
BIOS Function Level 1
generates timed hardware signals to
the video display that control the
raster scanning and displaying of
Hardware Level 0
pixels.

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 Tradeoffs
• Control versus portability
• Level 2 works on any computer running the same
operating system, but is not particularly fast because
each I/O call must go through several layers before it
executes
• Level 1 works on all systems having a standard BIOS,
but will not produce the same result on all systems
• Level 0 works with generic devices such as serial ports
and with specific I/O devices produced by known
manufacturers.
• Not all OS permit user programs to directly access
system hardware. Reserved for OS and device drivers
only

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