PROCCESSOR FUNDAMENTALS (proccessing)

Central Proccessing Unit (CPU) Architecture

1. The von Neumann model of computer system
John von Neumann was the first person to describe the basic priciples of a computer system
and its architecture in a publication.

The von Neumann model’s basic understanding:

- There is a proccessor – CPU
- The proccessor has direct access to memory
- The memory contains a “stored program” (which can be replaced by another at any
time) and data required by the program
- The stored program consists of individual instructions
- The proccessor sequentially executes instructions

2. The active
components of CPU
Arithmetic Logic
Unit (ALU): Its
function for the
arithmetic or logic
proccessing
requirements of the
instructions of the
instructions in a
running program.

Control Unit (CU):

More diverse, one
aspect is controlling
the flow of data
throughout the proccesor and the rest of the whole computer system. Anothr is ensuring that
program instructions are handled correctly.

3. Registers
The other components are registers. They are mainly storage components so it allows very
short amount of access time as they are located near the ALU (limited capacity: 16,32,64 bits).
Can be either general purpose or special purpose register. If there is only one general purpose
register, it could be called Acumulator, we could assume that the proccessor had one genral
purpose register. Special purpose registers as labled should be considered as individual
components. The box labelled “other registers” can be considered to comprise the Accumulator
plus the special purpose registers not identified individually.
Some of the special purpose registers:
Current instruction register (CIR): Stores the current instruction while it is being decoded and
executed
Index register (IX): Store a value, only used for indexed addressing
Memory address register (MAR): Stores the address of a memory location or an I/O
component which Is about to have a value read from or written to
Memory data register (memory buffer register) – MDR (MBR): Stores data that has just been
read from memory or is just about to be written to memory
Program counter (PC): Stores the address of where the next instruction is to be read from
Status register (SR): Contains bits that either set or cleared which can be referencd individually

3. The system bus

The address bus

- The address bus is to carry an address. This address is loaded on to the bus from the MAR as
and when directed by the control unit. The address specifies a location in memory or an I/O
component which is due to receive data or from which data to be read.
- The address bus is “one-way street”. It can only be used to send an address to a memory
controller or an I/O controller, cannot be used to carry an address back to the CPU.

The data bus

- To carry data (instruction, an address or a value)
- Data bus is two way (bidirectional): it might be carrying data from the CPU ot to the
CPU.

The control bus

 - Biderectional bus which transmit a signal to the control unit.
- A mojor use of control bus is carry timing signals. As the control unit defines the clock
cycle for the computer system. The control bus carries timing signals at time intervals
dictated by clock cycle. This ensures that the time that one component transmit data is
synchronised with the time that another component read it.

HARDWARE
A computer system has to support three major areas of operational capabilities:
- The proccessing of data
- The storage of data
- The input and ouput of data

Data storage
Primary data is considered as a memory component which the proccessor that directly access
and store used for a long term storage. The remainder is secondary storage.

In real life, the option that the primary storage has large capacity and super fast access time is
unrealistic. We could have that but for an unbelievable price. Consequently, secondary storage
should be a choice. It is more sensible simply to regconie that long term storage of data
requires separate dedicated components.