COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND DESIGN 6th

Edition
The Hardware/Software Interface

Chapter 1
Computer Abstractions
and Technology
 §1.1 Introduction
The Computer Revolution
◼ Progress in computer technology
◼ Underpinned by domain-specific accelerators
◼ Makes novel applications feasible
◼ Computers in automobiles
◼ Reduce pollution, improve fuel efficiency, automated driving
◼ Cell phones
◼ Human genome project
◼ Analyze human DNA sequences
◼ World Wide Web
◼ Replaced libraries
◼ Search Engines

◼ Computers are pervasive

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 2

Classes of Computers
◼ Personal computers
◼ General purpose, variety of software
◼ Subject to cost/performance tradeoff

◼ Server computers
◼ A computer used for running larger programs
for multiple users
◼ Network based
◼ High capacity, performance, reliability
◼ Range from small servers to building sized

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 3

Classes of Computers
◼ Supercomputers
◼ Type of server
◼ Cost hundreds of millions of dollars
◼ High-end scientific and engineering calculations
◼ Weather forecast, weapon research
◼ Exascale supercomputer at quintillion calculations per
second. (1x1018)
◼ Highest capability but represent a small fraction of the overall
computer market

◼ Embedded computers
◼ Hidden as components of systems (car, TV)
◼ Internet of Things (IoT): many small devices that all communicate
wirelessly over the Internet.
◼ Strict power/performance/cost constraints

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 4

The PostPC Era

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 5

 The PostPC Era
◼ Personal Mobile Device (PMD)
◼ Battery operated
◼ Connects to the Internet
◼ Hundreds of dollars
◼ Smart phones, tablets, electronic glasses
◼ Cloud computing
◼ Large data centers as Warehouse Scale Computers
(WSC)
◼ Amazon & Google build WSC’s having 50,000 servers
◼ Software as a Service (SaaS)
◼ delivers software and data as a service over the Internet - web search and social
networking.
◼ Portion of software run on a PMD and a portion run in the
Cloud
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 6
What You Will Learn
◼ How programs are translated into the
machine language
◼ And how the hardware executes them
◼ The hardware/software interface
◼ What determines program performance
◼ And how it can be improved
◼ How hardware designers improve
performance
◼ What is parallel processing
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 7
Understanding Performance
◼ Algorithm
◼ Determines number of operations executed
◼ Programming language, compiler, architecture
◼ Determines number of machine instructions executed
per operation
◼ Processor and memory system
◼ Determine how fast instructions are executed
◼ I/O system (hardware and OS)
◼ Determines how fast I/O operations are executed

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 8

 §1.2 Seven Great Ideas in Computer Architecture
Seven Great Ideas
◼ Use abstraction to simplify design

◼ Make the common case fast

◼ Performance via parallelism

◼ Performance via pipelining

◼ Performance via prediction

◼ Hierarchy of memories

◼ Dependability via redundancy

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 9

 §1.3 Below Your Program
Below Your Program
◼ Application software
◼ Written in high-level language
◼ System software
◼ Compiler: translates HLL code to
machine code
◼ Operating System: service code
◼ Handling input/output
◼ Managing memory and storage
◼ Scheduling tasks & sharing resources
◼ Hardware
◼ Processor, memory, I/O controllers

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 10

Levels of Program Code
◼ High-level language
◼ Level of abstraction closer
to problem domain
◼ Provides for productivity
and portability
◼ Assembly language
◼ Textual representation of
instructions
◼ Hardware representation
◼ Binary digits (bits)
◼ Encoded instructions and
data

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 11

 §1.4 Under the Covers
Components of a Computer
The BIG Picture ◼ Same components for
all kinds of computer
◼ Desktop, server,
embedded
◼ Input/output includes
◼ User-interface devices
◼ Display, keyboard, mouse
◼ Storage devices
◼ Hard disk, CD/DVD, flash
◼ Network adapters
◼ For communicating with
other computers

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 12

Touchscreen
◼ PostPC device
◼ Supersedes keyboard
and mouse
◼ Resistive and
Capacitive types
◼ Most tablets, smart
phones use capacitive
◼ Capacitive allows
multiple touches
simultaneously

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 13

Through the Looking Glass
◼ LCD screen: picture elements (pixels)
◼ LCD use an active matrix with a transistor
switch at each pixel
◼ Mirrors content of frame buffer memory

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 14

Inside the Processor (CPU)
◼ Datapath: performs operations on data
◼ Control: sequences datapath, memory, ...
◼ Cache memory
◼ Small fast SRAM memory for immediate
access to data

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 15

 Apple Iphone 14
Apple A15 Bionic chipset is built
on a 5nm process technology.

• 64-bit ARMv8 on a chip SoC (System on chip)

• 6-core CPU: two high performance Avalanche (3.24 Ghz), 4 energy
efficient cores Blizzard (2.01 Ghz)
• 5-core GPU
• 16-core Neural Engine - designed to speed speech, image
processing. Infuses the iphone with AI – 15.8 trillion operations per
second
• 15 billion transistors

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 16

Inside the Processor
◼ A15 processor

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 17

Abstractions
The BIG Picture

◼ Abstraction helps us deal with complexity

◼ Hide lower-level detail
◼ Instruction set architecture (ISA)
◼ The hardware/software interface
◼ Application binary interface
◼ The ISA plus system software interface
◼ Implementation
◼ The details underlying and interface
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 18
A Safe Place for Data
◼ Volatile main memory
◼ Loses instructions and data when power off
◼ Non-volatile secondary memory
◼ Magnetic disk
◼ Flash memory
◼ Optical disk (CDROM, DVD)

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 19

Networks
◼ Communication, resource sharing,
nonlocal access
◼ Local area network (LAN): Ethernet
◼ Wide area network (WAN): the Internet
◼ Wireless network: WiFi, Bluetooth

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 20

 §1.5 Technologies for Building Processors and Memory
Technology Trends
◼ Electronics
technology
continues to evolve
◼ Increased capacity
and performance
◼ Reduced cost
DRAM capacity

Year Technology Relative performance/cost

1951 Vacuum tube 1
1965 Transistor 35
1975 Integrated circuit (IC) 900
1995 Very large scale IC (VLSI) 2,400,000
2013 Ultra large scale IC 250,000,000,000

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 21

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 22
Integrated circuits

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 23

 Microprocessors FPGAs ASICs

In short: Common building block Reprogrammable You customize

of Computers Hardware, flexible everything

Development Time minutes days months

Good for Simple to use Prototyping Mass production,

Small volume Max performance

Programming Compiler Bitfile Design Masks

Languages C/C++/Java/… Verilog/VHDL Verilog/VHDL

Main Companies Intel, ARM Xilinx, Altera, Lattice TSMC, UMC, ST,
Globalfoundries
(micro)-Processors
Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
Use Verilog or VHDL to program the logic gates on the FPGAs…
Microsoft is using FPGAs in its data centers to run Bing search
algorithms-high-speed search.
The FPGA can change to support new algorithms as they are created.
Custom ASICs

• Application Specific Integrated

Circuit.

❖ Some examples of ASIC chip

include
❖ chips for satellites,
❖ chips designed to run a cell
phone,
❖ Bitcoin Miner,
❖ chip used in a voice
recorder
Moore’s Law
• Coined by Gordon Moore:
• In 1965
• Co-founder of Intel
Number of transistors that can be
manufactured doubles roughly
every 18 months.
How Do We Keep Moore’s Law
• Manufacturing smaller structures
• Some structures are already a few atoms in size
• Developing materials with better properties
• Copper instead of Aluminum (better conductor)
• Hafnium Oxide, air for Insulators
• Making sure all materials are compatible is the challenge
• Optimizing the manufacturing steps
• How to use 193nm ultraviolet light to pattern 20nm structures
• New technologies
• FinFET, Gate All Around transistor, Single Electron Transistor…
Semiconductor Technology
◼ Silicon: semiconductor
◼ Add materials to transform properties:
◼ Conductors
◼ Insulators
◼ Switch

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 31

Manufacturing ICs

Yield: proportion of working dies per wafer

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 32

Intel® Core 10th Gen

◼ 300mm wafer, 506 chips, 10nm technology

◼ Each chip is 11.4 x 10.7 mm
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 33
Integrated Circuit Cost
Cost per wafer
Cost per die =
Dies per wafer  Yield
Dies per wafer  Wafer area Die area
1
Yield =
(1+ (Defects per area  Die area/2)) 2

◼ Nonlinear relation to area and defect rate

◼ Wafer cost and area are fixed
◼ Defect rate determined by manufacturing process
◼ Die area determined by architecture and circuit design

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 34

Response Time and Throughput
◼ Response time
◼ How long it takes to do a task
◼ Throughput
◼ Total work done per unit time
◼ e.g., tasks/transactions/… per hour
◼ How are response time and throughput affected
by
◼ Replacing the processor with a faster version?
◼ Adding more processors?
◼ We’ll focus on response time for now…

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 35

Relative Performance
◼ Define Performance = 1/Execution Time
◼ “X is n time faster than Y”
Performanc e X Performanc e Y
= Execution time Y Execution time X = n

◼ Example: time taken to run a program

◼ 10s on A, 15s on B
◼ Execution TimeB / Execution TimeA
= 15s / 10s = 1.5
◼ So A is 1.5 times faster than B
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 36
Measuring Execution Time
◼ Elapsed time
◼ Total response time, including all aspects
◼ Processing, I/O, OS overhead, idle time
◼ Determines system performance
◼ CPU time
◼ Time spent processing a given job
◼ Discounts I/O time, other jobs’ shares
◼ Comprises user CPU time and system CPU
time
◼ Different programs are affected differently by
CPU and system performance
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 37
CPU Clocking
◼ Operation of digital hardware governed by a
constant-rate clock
Clock period

Clock (cycles)

Data transfer
and computation
Update state

◼ Clock period: duration of a clock cycle

◼ e.g., 250ps = 0.25ns = 250×10–12s
◼ Clock frequency (rate): cycles per second
◼ e.g., 4.0GHz = 4000MHz = 4.0×109Hz
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 38
CPU Clocking

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 39

CPU Time
CPU Time = CPU Clock Cycles  Clock Cycle Time
CPU Clock Cycles
=
Clock Rate
◼ Performance improved by
◼ Reducing number of clock cycles
◼ Increasing clock rate
◼ Hardware designer must often trade off clock
rate against cycle count

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 40

CPU Time Example
◼ Computer A: 2GHz clock, 10s CPU time
◼ Designing Computer B
◼ Aim for 6s CPU time
◼ Can do faster clock, but causes 1.2 × clock cycles
◼ How fast must Computer B clock be?
Clock CyclesB 1.2  Clock Cycles A
Clock Rate B = =
CPU Time B 6s
Clock Cycles A = CPU Time A  Clock Rate A
= 10s  2GHz = 20  10 9
1.2  20  10 9 24  10 9
Clock Rate B = = = 4GHz
6s 6s
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 41
Instruction Count and CPI
Clock Cycles = Instructio n Count  Cycles per Instructio n
CPU Time = Instructio n Count  CPI Clock Cycle Time
Instructio n Count  CPI
=
Clock Rate
◼ Instruction Count for a program
◼ Determined by program, ISA and compiler
◼ Average cycles per instruction
◼ Determined by CPU hardware
◼ If different instructions have different CPI
◼ Average CPI affected by instruction mix

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 42

CPI Example
◼ Computer A: Cycle Time = 250ps, CPI = 2.0
◼ Computer B: Cycle Time = 500ps, CPI = 1.2
◼ Same ISA
◼ Which is faster, and by how much?
CPU Time = Instructio n Count  CPI  Cycle Time
A A A
= I  2.0  250ps = I  500ps A is faster…
CPU Time = Instructio n Count  CPI  Cycle Time
B B B
= I  1.2  500ps = I  600ps

B = I  600ps = 1.2
CPU Time
…by this much
CPU Time I  500ps
A
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 43
 CPI in More Detail
◼ If different instruction classes take different
numbers of cycles
n
Clock Cycles =  (CPIi  Instructio n Count i )
i=1

◼ Weighted average CPI

Clock Cycles n
 Instructio n Count i 
CPI = =   CPIi  
Instructio n Count i=1  Instructio n Count 

Relative frequency

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 44

CPI Example
◼ Alternative compiled code sequences using
instructions in classes A, B, C

Class A B C
CPI for class 1 2 3
IC in sequence 1 2 1 2
IC in sequence 2 4 1 1

◼ Sequence 1: IC = 5 ◼ Sequence 2: IC = 6
◼ Clock Cycles ◼ Clock Cycles
= 2×1 + 1×2 + 2×3 = 4×1 + 1×2 + 1×3
= 10 =9
◼ Avg. CPI = 10/5 = 2.0 ◼ Avg. CPI = 9/6 = 1.5
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 45
Performance Summary
The BIG Picture

Instructio ns Clock cycles Seconds

CPU Time =  
Program Instructio n Clock cycle

◼ Performance depends on
◼ Algorithm: affects IC, possibly CPI
◼ Programming language: affects IC, CPI
◼ Compiler: affects IC, CPI
◼ Instruction set architecture: affects IC, CPI, Tc

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 46

 §1.7 The Power Wall
Power Trends

◼ In CMOS IC technology
Power = Capacitive load  Voltage 2  Frequency

×30 5V → 1V ×1000

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 47

Reducing Power
◼ Suppose a new CPU has
◼ 85% of capacitive load of old CPU
◼ 15% voltage and 15% frequency reduction
Pnew Cold  0.85  (Vold  0.85) 2  Fold  0.85
= = 0.85 4
= 0.52
Cold  Vold  Fold
2
Pold

◼ The power wall

◼ We can’t reduce voltage further
◼ We can’t remove more heat
◼ How else can we improve performance?
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 48
 §1.8 The Sea Change: The Switch to Multiprocessors
Uniprocessor Performance

Constrained by power, instruction-level parallelism,

memory latency

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 49

Multiprocessors
◼ Multicore microprocessors
◼ More than one processor per chip
◼ Requires explicitly parallel programming
◼ Compare with instruction level parallelism
◼ Hardware executes multiple instructions at once
◼ Hidden from the programmer
◼ Hard to do
◼ Programming for performance
◼ Load balancing
◼ Optimizing communication and synchronization

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 50

SPEC CPU Benchmark
◼ Programs used to measure performance
◼ Supposedly typical of actual workload
◼ Standard Performance Evaluation Corp (SPEC)
◼ Develops benchmarks for CPU, I/O, Web, …
◼ SPEC CPU2006
◼ Elapsed time to execute a selection of programs
◼ Negligible I/O, so focuses on CPU performance
◼ Normalize relative to reference machine
◼ Summarize as geometric mean of performance ratios
◼ CINT2006 (integer) and CFP2006 (floating-point)

n
n
 Execution time ratio
i=1
i

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 51

SPECspeed 2017 Integer benchmarks on a
1.8 GHz Intel Xeon E5-2650L

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 52

SPEC Power Benchmark
◼ Power consumption of server at different
workload levels
◼ Performance: ssj_ops/sec
◼ Power: Watts (Joules/sec)

 10   10 
Overall ssj_ops per Watt =   ssj_ops i    power i 
 i=0   i=0 

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 53

SPECpower_ssj2008 for Xeon E5-2650L

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 54

 §1.11 Fallacies and Pitfalls
Pitfall: Amdahl’s Law
◼ Improving an aspect of a computer and
expecting a proportional improvement in
overall performance
Taffected
Timproved = + Tunaffected
improvemen t factor
◼ Example: multiply accounts for 80s/100s
◼ How much improvement in multiply performance to
get 5× overall?
80 ◼ Can’t be done!
20 = + 20
n
◼ Corollary: make the common case fast
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 55
Fallacy: Low Power at Idle
◼ Look back at i7 power benchmark
◼ At 100% load: 258W
◼ At 50% load: 170W (66%)
◼ At 10% load: 121W (47%)
◼ Google data center
◼ Mostly operates at 10% – 50% load
◼ At 100% load less than 1% of the time
◼ Consider designing processors to make
power proportional to load

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 56

Pitfall: MIPS as a Performance Metric
◼ MIPS: Millions of Instructions Per Second
◼ Doesn’t account for
◼ Differences in ISAs between computers
◼ Differences in complexity between instructions

Instructio n count
MIPS =
Execution time  10 6
Instructio n count Clock rate
= =
Instructio n count  CPI CPI  10 6
 10 6

Clock rate

◼ CPI varies between programs on a given CPU

Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 57
 §1.12 Concluding Remarks
Concluding Remarks
◼ Cost/performance is improving
◼ Due to underlying technology development
◼ Hierarchical layers of abstraction
◼ In both hardware and software
◼ Instruction set architecture
◼ The hardware/software interface
◼ Execution time: the best performance
measure
◼ Power is a limiting factor
◼ Use parallelism to improve performance
Chapter 1 — Computer Abstractions and Technology — 58