Arithmetic Logic Unit

ALU
By: Ahmad Yazdankhah
CS 147
Fall 2008
Prof: Dr. Sin-Min Lee

Table of Contents

Assumptions
Review: Bus Concept
Review: CPU Building Block
The Simplest Computer Building Blocks
Whats ALU?
Typical Schematic Symbol of an ALU
Lets Build a 1-Bit ALU
Useful Links
References

Assumptions
You are familiar with:
1.Number representations (1s
complement, 2s comp.)
2.Arithmetic operations (Add, Sub, . . .)
3.Floating Point concept
4.Registers in CPU (Accumulator,
Program Counter, Instruction
Register, )

Review: Bus Concept

Review: CPU Building Blocks

Registers
(IR, PC,
ACC)
Control
Unit
(CU)
Arithmetic
Logic Unit
(ALU)

The Simplest Computer Building

Blocks
Instruction Register
(IR)

Program Counter
(PC)

0
1
Control Unit
(CU)

2
ALU

3
4
5

Status Register
(FLAG)

CPU

Accumulator (ACC)

.
RAM

Whats ALU?
1. ALU stands for: Arithmetic Logic
Unit
2. ALU is a digital circuit that
performs Arithmetic (Add,
Sub, . . .) and Logical (AND, OR,
NOT) operations.
3. John Von Neumann proposed the
ALU in 1945 when he was working
on EDVAC.

Typical Schematic Symbol of

an
ALU
A and B: the inputs to the
ALU
(aka operands)
R: Output or Result
F: Code or Instruction from
the Control Unit (aka as opcode)
D: Output status; it indicates
cases such as:
carry-in
carry-out,
overflow,
division-by-zero

Lets Build a 1-Bit ALU

This is an one-bit ALU which can do Logical AND and Logical OR operation.
Result = a AND b when operation = 0
Result = a OR b when operation = 1
The operation line is the input of a MUX.

Building a 1-Bit ALU

Adding a full adder to our ALU

(contd)

A 32-Bit ALU
By paralleling the one-bit ALUs and some other modification on the
logical circuits, we can create bigger ALUs.

Useful Links
Virginia Tech online courses:
http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~csonline/index.html

Virginia Tech online Circuit Simulator

http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~csonline/MachineArchite
cture/Lessons/Circuits/simcir_frame.html

Virginia Tech Microprocessor

Simulation:
http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~csonline/MachineArchite
cture/Lessons/CPU/sumprogram.html

References:
Text book: Computer System
Architecture
(By: Rob Williams, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2006)

Site Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmetic_logic_unit

Previous Student Lectures:

(By: Anna Kurek, Spring 2008)

Professors Lecture Notes.

Virginia Tech online courses:
http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~csonline/index.html