Chapter:4A

Processing Data
 Bits
A binary digit. In the computer, electronics, and
communications fields, “bit” is generally
understood as a shortened form of “binary
digit.” In a numerical binary system, a bit is
either a 0 or 1. Bits are generally used to
indicate situations that can take one of two
values or one of two states, for example, on and
off, true or false, or yes or no. If, by convention,
1 represents a particular state, then 0 represents
the other state. For example, if 1 stands for
“yes,” then 0 stands for “no.”
 Bytes

It is made up of eight binary

digits (bits).
 TEXT CODES

ASCII

Acronym for the American Standard Code for

Information Interchange. Pronounced ask-ee,
ASCII is a code for representing English
characters as numbers, with each letter assigned
a number from 0 to 127. For example, the
ASCII code for uppercase M is 77. Most
computers use ASCII codes to represent text,
which makes it possible to transfer data from
one computer to another.

.
 ASCII
The standard ASCII character set uses just 7
bits for each character. There are several larger
character sets that use 8 bits, which gives them
128 additional characters. The extra characters
are used to represent non-English characters,
graphics symbols, and mathematical symbols.
Several companies and organizations have
proposed extensions for these 128 characters.
 EBCDIC

Abbreviation of Extended Binary-

Coded Decimal Interchange
Code. Pronounced eb-sih-dik,
EBCDIC is an IBM code for
representing characters as
numbers. Although it is widely
used on large IBM computers
 UNICODE
A standard for representing characters as
integers. Unlike ASCII, which uses 7 bits for
each character, Unicode uses 32 bits, which
means that it can represent more than 4 billion
unique characters. This is a bit of overkill for
English and Western-European languages, but
it is necessary for some other languages, such as
Greek, Chinese and Japanese. Many analysts
believe that as the software industry becomes
increasingly global, Unicode will eventually
replace ASCII as the standard character coding
format.
How Computer Process Data
 CPU
The CPU is the brains of the
computer. Sometimes referred to
simply as the processor or central
processor, the CPU is where most
calculations take place. In terms of
computing power, the CPU is the
most important element of a
computer system.
 CPU

Two typical components of a CPU

are:
The arithmetic logic unit (ALU),
which performs arithmetic and
logical operations.
The control unit (CU), which
extracts instructions from memory
and decodes and executes them,
calling on the ALU when necessary.
 Control Unit

A computer is a device that

accepts information and
manipulates it for some result
based on a program or sequence
of instructions on how the data is
to be processed.
 Dual-Core Processor

Dual-core refers to a CPU that

includes two complete execution
cores per physical processor. It
combines two processors and their
caches and cache controllers onto a
single integrated circuit (silicon
chip). It is basically two processors,
in most cases, reside side-by-side
on the same die.
 ALU
In computing, an arithmetic logic unit
(ALU) is a digital circuit that performs
arithmetic and logical operations. The
ALU is a fundamental building block of
the central processing unit of a computer,
and even the simplest microprocessors
contain one for purposes such as
maintaining timers.
 Simple Operations by ALU
Most ALUs can perform the following operations:
Integer arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction,
and sometimes multiplication and division)
------Bitwise logic operations (AND, NOT, OR,
XOR)
-----Bit-shifting operations (shifting or rotating a
word by a specified number of bits to the left or right,
with or without sign extension).
ALU
MEMORY
 Nonvolatile memory.
Non-volatile memory, NVM or non-volatile
storage, is computer memory that can retain the
stored information even when not powered.
Examples of non-volatile memory include read-
only memory, flash memory, most types of
magnetic computer storage devices (e.g. hard
disks, floppy disk drives, and magnetic tape),
optical disc drives.
 Flash Memory.

A very popular non-volatile, rewritable

memory chip. Evolving from the
EEPROM chip, flash was invented by
Toshiba and named after its ability to
erase a block of a data "in a flash."
Extremely durable, flash is widely used
for storage modules such as USB drives
and digital camera memory cards .
 Volatile memory

Volatile memory, also known as

volatile storage or primary
storage device, is computer
memory that requires power to
maintain the stored information
 SIMM

Acronym for single in-line memory

module, a small circuit board that can
hold a group of memory chips. Typically,
SIMMs hold up to eight (on Macintoshes)
or nine (on PCs) RAM chips. On PCs, the
ninth chip is often used for parity error
checking. Unlike memory chips, SIMMs
are measured in bytes rather than bits.
SIMMs are easier to install than
individual memory chips.
.
 Parity Checking

Assume, for example, that two devices are communicating

with even parity (the most common form of parity
checking). If the number of set bits is even, it sets the parity
bit to 0; if the number of set bits is odd, it sets the parity bit
to 1. In this way, every byte has an even number of set bits.
On the receiving side, the device checks each byte to make
sure that it has an even number of set bits. If it finds an odd
number of set bits, the receiver knows there was an error
during transmission
SIMM
 DIMM

Short for dual in-line memory module, a

small circuit board that holds memory
chips. A single in-line memory module
(SIMM) has a 32-bit path to the memory
chips whereas a DIMM has 64-bit path.
Because the Pentium processor requires a
64-bit path to memory, you need to install
SIMMs two at a time. With DIMMs, you
can install memory one DIMM at a time.
 Registers
A, special, high-speed storage area within the CPU. All
data must be represented in a register before it can be
processed. For example, if two numbers are to be
multiplied, both numbers must be in registers, and the
result is also placed in a register. (The register can contain
the address of a memory location where data is stored
rather than the actual data itself.
The number of registers that a CPU has and the size of
each (number of bits) help determine the power and speed
of a CPU. For example a 32-bit CPU is one in which each
register is 32 bits wide. Therefore, each CPU instruction
can manipulate 32 bits of data.
Memory and Computing Power
 The computers Internal Clock
Also called clock rate, the speed at which a
microprocessor executes instructions. Every
computer contains an internal clock that
regulates the rate at which instructions are
executed and synchronizes all the various
computer components. The CPU requires a
fixed number of clock ticks (or clock cycles) to
execute each instruction. The faster the clock,
the more instructions the CPU can execute per
second.

Clock speeds are expressed in megahertz (MHz)

or gigahertz ((GHz).
 BUS
A collection of wires through which data is transmitted from one
part of a computer to another. You can think of a bus as a highway
on which data travels within a computer. When used in reference to
personal computers, the term bus usually refers to internal bus.
This is a bus that connects all the internal computer components to
the CPU and main memory. There's also an expansion bus that
enables expansion boards to access the CPU and memory.
All buses consist of two parts -- an address bus and a data bus. The
data bus transfers actual data whereas the address bus transfers
information about where the data should go.
The size of a bus, known as its width, is important because it
determines how much data can be transmitted at one time. For
example, a 16-bit bus can transmit 16 bits of data, whereas a 32-bit
bus can transmit 32 bits of data.
Every bus has a clock speed measured in MHz. A fast bus allows
data to be transferred faster, which makes applications run faster.
On PCs, the old ISA bus is being replaced by faster buses such as
PCI.
 ISA BUS
(Pronounced as separate letters or as eye-
sa). Short for Industry Standard
Architecture bus, the bus architecture
used in the IBM PC/XT and PC/AT. The
AT version of the bus is called the AT bus.
Starting in the early 90s, ISA began to be
replaced by the PCI local bus
architecture. Most computers made today
include both an AT bus for slower devices
and a PCI bus for devices that need better
bus performance..
 PCI BUS
Short for Peripheral Component Interconnect, a
local bus standard developed by Intel
Corporation. Most modern PCs include a PCI
bus . PCI is also used on newer versions of the
Macintosh computer.
PCI is a 64-bit bus, though it is usually
implemented as a 32-bit bus. It can run at clock
speeds of 33 or 66 MHz.
 Local Bus

Local buses can support only a

few devices, they provide very fast
output.
 Address Bus

It is a set of wires which connects

only the CPU and RAM and
carries only memory address.
 AGP
Short for Accelerated Graphics Port, an
interface specification developed by Intel
Corporation. AGP is based on PCI, but is
designed especially for the throughput
demands of 3-D graphics. Rather than
using the PCI bus for graphics data, AGP
introduces a dedicated point-to-point
channel so that the graphics controller
can directly access main memory.
 USB

Short for Universal Serial Bus,

an external bus standard that
supports data transfer rates of 12
Mbps. A single USB port can be
used to connect up to 127
peripheral devices, such as mice,
modems, and keyboards. USB
also supports Plug-and-Play
installation and hot plugging.
 Plug and Play
Refers to the ability of a computer
system to automatically configure
expansion boards and other
devices. You should be able to
plug in a device and play with it,
without worrying about setting
DIP switches, jumpers, and other
configuration elements.
 Cache Memory
A CPU cache is a cache used by the
central processing unit of a computer to
reduce the average time to access
memory. The cache is a smaller, faster
memory which stores copies of the data
from the most frequently used main
memory locations.
 Cache Memory
When a program is running and the CPU
needs to read a data from RAM,, the CPU
checks first to see whether the data is in
cache memory. If the data is not there, the
CPU reads data from RAM into its
register, but it also loads a copy of the
data into cache memory. The next time
the CPU needs the data, it finds it in the
cache memory and saves the time needed
to load then data from RAM.
Cache Memory