IFT222 Computer Architecture and Organization - Unit 1 Flashcards

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the fundamental concepts, components, and distinctions between computer architecture and organization as presented in the IFT222 course material.

Computer

A programmable device that stores, retrieves, and processes data; also defined as a sophisticated electronic calculating machine that accepts data, processes it according to internally stored instructions, and produces output information.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

A basic component of a personal computer responsible for processing instructions.

Computer Architecture

The attributes of a computer system visible to a programmer, which have a direct impact on the logical execution of a program, such as the instruction set and data types.

Computer Organization

The operational units and their interconnections that realize the architectural specifications, focusing on the physical implementation and hardware details transparent to the programmer.

Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)

The core of computer architecture that acts as the interface between hardware and software, defining instruction formats, data types, registers, and addressing modes.

Data Types and Representation

Defines how data is stored and interpreted, including integer formats (signed/unsigned), floating-point representation, and character encoding like ASCII or Unicode.

Addressing Modes

The methods that determine how operands are accessed during instruction execution, such as immediate, direct, indirect, and register addressing.

Registers

Small, fast storage locations inside the CPU, categorized into general-purpose and special-purpose types like the Program Counter and Stack Pointer.

Von Neumann Architecture

A system design featuring a shared memory region for both program instructions and the data acted upon by those instructions.

Harvard Architecture

A system design that uses separate address spaces and memory buses for program instructions and data, enabling simultaneous access to both.

Control Unit

An organizational component that coordinates all operations of the CPU by fetching and decoding instructions and generating control signals.

Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

A component that performs arithmetic operations, such as addition and subtraction, and logical operations, such as AND, OR, and NOT.

Memory Hierarchy

The physical implementation of memory organized by speed and capacity, typically consisting of cache, main memory (RAM), and secondary storage.

Input/Output (I/O) Systems

The components responsible for handling communication between the computer and external devices or the environment.

System Buses

The interconnections used to transfer data, addresses, and control signals between computer components, categorized into data, address, and control buses.

Pipelining

An organizational technique involving the overlapping of instruction execution to improve processing throughput.

Parallelism

The organizational capability of a system to execute multiple tasks simultaneously.

CPI

A metric used to analyze the performance of computer systems, standing for Cycles Per Instruction.

MIPS

A performance metric for computer systems, standing for Millions of Instructions Per Second.