A dedicated computer solves only one class of problems (e.g., a computer in a calculator, a cruise speed control, or washing machine). All Rights Reservedħ Computer Types Computers are dedicated or general-purpose. 3.Ě key component of computers is the bus (or family of busses) that moves information round the computer between different functional units.
Modern microprocessors usually include cache (high-speed) memory on-chip. The CPU is often synonymous with microprocessor. The CPU is the central processing unit that reads instructions and executed them. The term computer describes the entire system. All Rights ReservedĦ Computer Structure Figure 1.1 describes the structure of a computer. Today, a computer’s organization is often referred to as its microarchitecture In theory, architecture and organization are orthogonal that is, they are entirely independent You could say that architecture tells you what a computer does and organization tells you how it does it © 2014 Cengage Learning Engineering. All Rights Reservedġ.Ĝomputer organization is concerned with the implementation of an ISA Any given ISA can have many different organizations 3.Ĝomputer manufacturers regular modify the architecture of a processor while keeping its ISA essentially constant 4. The computer’s assembly language embodies its ISA © 2014 Cengage Learning Engineering. All Rights Reservedġ.Ě computer is characterized by its instruction set architecture, ISA An instruction set architecture defines the programming model of a computer 3.Ěn ISA is an abstract entity because it does not consider the specific design or implementation of a computer 4.Ěn ISA is concerned with the computer’s register set, instruction set, and addressing modes 5. Part V Processor Level Parallelism goes beyond the single-processor computer and introduces the notion of computers with multiple processors. Part IV The Computer System covers the other parts of a computer required to convert the microprocessor chip into a complete system for example, peripheral subsystems and the wide range of memory systems, storage devices, and buses available to the computer systems’ designer. Part III Organization and Performance describes how we measure the performance of computers. We introduce the register model of a computer, its instruction types, and the addressing modes of a typical microprocessor.
Part II Instruction set architectures (ISAs) looks at the programming model of a computer. Part Iğoundations introduces the concepts, history and underlying technology of digital computers. Chapter 1 Computer Organization and Architecture