Why Study Computer Architecture Introduction

Introduction

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Why Study Computer Architecture

? Makes it possible to write computer programs that are:

? Faster ? Smaller ? Less prone to error

? Allows programmers to appreciate relative cost of operations and the effect of programming choices

? Helps programmers debug ? It's a required course!!

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Ward 3

Why Study Computer Architecture

? Makes it possible to write computer programs that are:

? Faster ? Smaller ? Less prone to error

? Allows programmers to appreciate relative cost of operations and the effect of programming choices

? Helps programmers debug

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Ward 2

The Bad News

? Digital hardware

? is complex ? cannot be understood in one course ? requires background in electricity and

electronics

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The Good News

? It is possible to understand architectural components without knowing low-level technical details.

? Programmers only need to know the essentials

? Characteristics of major components ? Role in overall system ? Consequences for programmers

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Design

? Needed before a computer can be built ? Translates architecture into practice ? Fills in details that architectural

specification omits ? Specifies items such as

? How components are grouped onto boards ? How power is distributed to boards

? Many designs can satisfy a given architecture

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Computer Architecture

? Refers to overall organization of computer system

? Analogous to a blueprint ? Specifies

? Functionality of major components ? Interconnection among components

? Abstracts away details

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Summary

? Understanding architecture helps programmers

? Course covers essentials of computer architecture

? Digital logic ? Processors, memory, I/O ? Advanced topics such as parallelism and

pipelining

? We will omit most details and focus on concepts.

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Basic Structure of Computers

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Connections Between Processor and Memory

Memory

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MAR PC IR

MDR

R0 R1

Control

Rn- 1

n general purpose registers

ALU

Processor Ward 11

Basic Functional Units of a Computer

Input

Output I/O

Memory

Arithmetic and logic

Control

Processor

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Single-Bus Structure

Input

Output

Memory

Processor

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Sharing of the Processor

Printer Disk OS routines Program

t 0

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t1

t2

t3

t4

Time

t5

Ward 13

Processor Cache

Main memory

Cache memory Processor

Bus

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