ENGSCI Week 1 Lesson 1 | Computer Architecture

Computer Architecture

The art of building the computer.

“…How much memory should I put into this computer?”

“…Which type of Instruction set should I use in this computer?”

“…What machine instructions should there be?”

Computer Organization

Is the way the hardware components operate and the way they are connected to each other.

It is composed of I/O devices, memory system and a processor.

Processor

Used to solve mathematical problems.

Memory

Used to save all those processes and finally the I/O devices to interact with the processor.

Arithmetic Logic Unit

Is a part of the processor that performs mathematical and logical operation. It is a digital circuit and a fundamental building block of a CPU.

Mathematical operations: addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication(x) and division (÷)

Logical operations: AND, OR, NOT

Processor

Aside from ALU and registers, it contains a control unit(CU).

Control unit

Is responsible for sending electrical signals to the ALU, memory, I/O devices and directs the operation of a processor.

Control unit

Gives commands to the ALU which operation is to be used on the data and the ALU stores the result to the register.

Processor

May use one or more ALUs and retrieve data from the register.

Register

Is a storage with a small amount of memory and is also a part of a processor.

Binary

The language a computer uses to process instructions.

0 and 1

All information in a computer is stored and operates as binary numbers and is manipulated by transistor switches.

8 bit or 1 byte

Equivalent of one character.

Characters, symbols or numbers have an equivalent set of binary numbers.

ASCII Table

A table that displays the equivalent binary value of the alphabet or other symbols