Computer Architecture and Organization: Multiple Representations and Layers of Interpretation

Comprehensive practice flashcards covering computer abstraction levels, memory hierarchy, hardware description languages (VHDL), computer-aided design tools, register transfer notation, and digital logic concepts.

Operating System

Provides a convenient interface between (a) the user and his/her application software, and (b) the hardware (sometimes called the bare machine).

Assembler

Translates assembly language, a primitive type of programming language, into machine code, which is a stream of ones and zeroes.

Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)

Interfaces the software to the hardware and provides support for programming.

Datapath and Control

Provide a convenient abstraction for connecting the processor, memory, and I/O system and controlling their function efficiently.

Memory Hierarchy

A configuration of several levels of memory (registers, cache, main memory, magnetic discs, and magnetic tapes) with different performance rates.

Volatile Memory

Memory where data is automatically lost when there is no power; includes registers, cache, and main memory.

Non-volatile Memory

Memory that stores data permanently, even without power; includes magnetic discs and magnetic tapes.

Auxiliary Memory

The lowest-cost, highest-capacity, and slowest-access storage in a computer system, used for long-term storage or data not in immediate use.

Main Memory

Often referred to as Random Access Memory (RAM), it communicates directly with the CPU and with auxiliary memory devices through an I/O processor.

Cache Memory

Stores frequently used data or contents from the main memory so the processor can access it in a shorter time.

Hardware Description Language (HDL)

A formal language for the operations of integrated circuits, their design, and software-based simulations, expressing temporal behavior or spatial structure in text.

Logic Synthesis Tool (Synthesizer)

A program that infers hardware logic operations from language statements and produces an equivalent net list of generic hardware primitives.

Entity (VHDL)

Basic element used to specify the input and output ports (in, out, inout, or buffer) of a circuit.

Architecture (VHDL)

The actual description of the design used to describe how the circuit operates, containing concurrent and sequential statements.

Configuration (VHDL)

Defines how the design hierarchy is linked together and associates architecture with an entity.

Data Flow Modeling

A VHDL modeling style described based on Boolean expressions that shows how data flows from input to output using concurrent execution.

Behavioral Modeling

A VHDL modeling style used to execute statements sequentially to show how the system performs according to the current statement.

Structural Modeling

Specifies functionality and structure of a circuit, containing signal declarations, component instances, and port maps.

Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

The use of computer software to design and document a product’s design process using graphical symbols like points, lines, and shapes.

Micro-operations

The operations performed on the data stored in registers within a digital system.

Register Transfer Language

The symbolic representation of notations used to specify the sequence of micro-operations.

Register Transfer Notation

A digital computer system exhibits an interconnection of digital modules such as registers,

decoders, arithmetic elements, and Control logic.

Bus

A set of common lines, one for each bit of register, through which binary information is transferred one at a time.

Read Operation

The transfer of information from a memory word to the outside environment, represented as $\text{DR} \leftarrow \text{M[AR]}$.

Write Operation

The transfer of new information to be stored into a memory word selected by an address.

Computer Architecture

The field of study of selecting and interconnecting hardware components to create computers that satisfy functional performance and cost goals.

John Von Neumann Architecture

The basis for virtually every machine designed since the 1940s, featuring stored programs in a single read-write memory addressable by location.

Combinational Circuit

Logic gates whose outputs at any time are determined directly from the present combination of inputs without regard to previous inputs.

Half-Adder

A combinational circuit that performs the addition of two bits, producing a Sum ($S = x'y+xy'$) and a Carry ($C = xy$).

Full-Adder

A combinational circuit that performs the addition of three bits: two significant bits and a previous carry.

SR Flip-Flop

An application of logic gates that can remain in a binary state indefinitely as long as power is delivered, until directed to switch by an input signal.

Register Transfer

refers to the availability of hardware logic circuits that can perform a given micro-operation and transfer the result of the operation to the same or another register.

AutoCAD

product from Autodesk. It allows designers to work in 2D and 3D, and

has extensive online collaboration tools

Archicad

is a professional building information modeling software solution complying with all digital-delivery requirements

OrCAD

a proprietary software tool suite used primarily for electronic design automation.

UNIVAC [1950]

the first commercial computer

Clocked S-R Flip-Flop

The operation of a basic flip flop can be modified by providing an additional control input that determines when the state of the circuit is to be changed.

D flip-flop

slight modification of clocked SR flip-flop.

J-K Flip-Flop

can be considered as a modification of the S-R flip-flop.

T Flip-Flop

simpler version of the J-K flip-flop.