Basic Computer Organization

A traditional digital computer consists of three main units, the processor or central processing unit
(CPU), the memory that stores program instructions and data, and the input/output hardware that
communicates to other devices. Memory, I/O, Instruction Register (IR), and CPU are connected by a
collection of parallel digital signals (wires) called a bus.

Figure 1 Basic Architecture of a Computer

Internally, the CPU contains a small number of registers, general purpose register and special purpose
register that are used to store data inside the processor. Different instructions are implemented in a
sequential order since the communication between different units of the CPU is done through a common
bus. In advance CPU a separate buses are used for data and address transfer. But in Figure 1 only one bus
is used so it is used as both address and data bus.

The basic fundamental principal on which all the stored computers are based on are fetch, decode and
execute as shown in Figure 2 . The processor reads or fetches an instruction from memory, decodes the
instruction to determine what operations are required, and then executes the instruction. The program
counter (pc) contains the address of the current instruction.

Figure 2 Basic premise of all computers

Normally, to fetch the next instruction from memory the processor must increment the program counter
(PC). The processor must then send the address value in the PC to memory over the bus by loading the
memory address register (MAR) and start a memory read operation on the bus. After a small delay, the
instruction data will appear on the bus, and it will be latched into the instruction register (IR). Execution
of the instruction may require an additional memory cycle so the instruction is normally saved in the CPU's
instruction register (IR). Using the value in the IR, the instruction can now be decoded. Execution of the
instruction will require additional operations in the CPU and perhaps additional memory operations. The
Accumulator (AC) is the primary register used to perform data calculations and to hold temporary program
data in the processor. After completing execution of the instruction the processor begins the cycle again
by fetching the next instruction.