ENGG 30.02 Module 1 Lecture 1 Computer Introductions

digital computer

fast electronic calculating machine that accepts digital input. processes according to internal list of instructions and outputs result

program

list of instructions

memory

internal storage

1. desktop computers

2. notebook/laptop

3. enterprise systems/mainframes

4. servers

5. supercomputers

types of computers

desktop computers

personal computers or workstations

notebook/laptop computers

used for portability

enterprise systems/mainframes

used for business data processing in. has more computing power and storage capacity

servers

range from computing to memory applications. capable of handling large volumes of requests for processing data

supercomputers

for large scale calculations like weather forecasting or aircraft design

1.1 EFLOPS

Oak Ridge’s Frontier supercomputer’s FLOPS

0.442 EFLOPS

Japan’s Fugaku supercomputer’s FLOPS

FLOPS

floating point operations per second

8 bits

amount of bits in a byte

1. input

2. output

3. control units

4. arithmetic and logic

5. memory

main parts of computer

input/output

getting information to and from computer

input

gives data to processor

output

sends processed results to outside world

memory

storage for input values and programs

higher level: primary storage (CPU chips)

fast memory comprised of semiconductor cells storing 1 bit

primary storage (cont’d)

uses random access memory (RAM)

caches

small, fast RAM

main memory

largest and slowest of primary storage (cont’d)

lower level: secondary storage

slower and cheaper but with greater storage capacity for long term infrequently accessed data

arithmetic and logic

performs the processing on information in memory

registers

high speed memory within processor itself (where arithmetic and logic usually operates on)

control unit

provides signals to coordinate communication between units of computer. generates timing signals to initiate and stop operations