Introduction Part B

Self-Study

1.1 Historical Development

To fully appreciate the computers of today, it is helpful to understand how
things got the way they are.
The evolution of computing machinery has taken place over several
centuries.
In modern times computer evolution is usually classified into four
generations according to the salient technology of the era.

We note that many of the following dates are approximate.

1.1 Historical Development (Cont )

Generation Zero: Mechanical Calculating Machines (1642 - 1945)
Calculating Clock - Wilhelm Schickard (1592 - 1635).
Pascaline - Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662).
Difference Engine - Charles Babbage (1791 - 1871), also designed but
never built the Analytical Engine.
Punched card tabulating machines - Herman Hollerith (1860 - 1929).

Hollerith cards were commonly used for computer input well

into the 1970s.

1.1 Historical Development (Cont )

The First Generation: Vacuum Tube Computers (1945 - 1953)
Atanasoff Berry Computer (1937 - 1938) solved
systems of linear equations.
John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry of Iowa State
University.

1.1 Historical Development (Cont )

The First Generation: Vacuum Tube Computers (1945 - 1953)
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer
(ENIAC)
John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert
University of Pennsylvania, 1946
The ENIAC was the first general-purpose computer.

1.1 Historical Development (Cont )

The First Generation: Vacuum Tube Computers (1945 - 1953)
The IBM 650 first mass-produced computer. (1955)
It was phased out in 1969.

Other major computer manufacturers of this period include UNIVAC,

Engineering Research Associates (ERA), and Computer Research
Corporation (CRC).
UNIVAC and ERA were bought by Remington Rand, the ancestor
of the Unisys Corporation.
CRC was bought by the Underwood (typewriter) Corporation,
which left the computer business.

1.1 Historical Development (Cont )

The Second Generation: Transistorized Computers (1954 - 1965)

IBM 7094 (scientific) and 1401 (business)

Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-1
Univac 1100
Control Data Corporation 1604.
. . . and many others.

These systems had few architectural similarities.

1.1 Historical Development (Cont )

The Third Generation: Integrated Circuit Computers (1965 - 1980)

IBM 360
DEC PDP-8 and PDP-11
Cray-1 supercomputer
. . . and many others.
By this time, IBM had gained overwhelming dominance in the industry.
Computer manufacturers of this era were characterized as IBM
and the BUNCH (Burroughs, Unisys, NCR, Control Data, and
Honeywell).

1.1 Historical Development (Cont )

The Fourth Generation: VLSI Computers (1980 - ????)
Very large scale integrated circuits (VLSI) have more than 10,000
components per chip.
Enabled the creation of microprocessors.
The first was the 4-bit Intel 4004.
Later versions, such as the 8080, 8086, and 8088 spawned the idea of
personal computing.

1.1 Historical Development (Cont )

Moores Law (1965)
Gordon Moore, Intel founder
The density of transistors in an integrated circuit will double every
year.
Contemporary version:
The density of silicon chips doubles every 18 months.
But this law cannot hold forever ...

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Question
Name the breakthrough technologies for first, second, third and fourth
generations of computer development?
First Generation: Vacuum tubes
Second Generation: Transistors
Third Generation: Integrated Circuits (ICs)
Fourth Generation: Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI)

1.2 Computer Components - System Bus (Cont )

The heart of any motherboard are the various buses that
carry signals between the components.
The PC has a
hierarchy of
different buses
ordered by their
speed.
Processor System bus

AGP System bus

Each device in the system is

connected to a bus

PCI System bus

ISA System bus

1.2 Computer Components - I/O Interfaces (Cont )

The adapter interface

is a way to connect
one piece of
hardware to another

PS/2

USB

Serial Ports

Parallel Ports use a DB25-pin, female connector

1.2 Computer Components Cache (Cont )

Cache chips on XEON Processor
A cache is a small area of very
fast memory to store some of the
current working set of code and
data that the CPU expects to call
for in the immediate future.

Cache can be located in RAM, on a disk, or in dedicated chips. When the

cache is in a separate, dedicated chip, the speeds of the cache memory can be
disassociated from the motherboards clock speed, therefore this allows cache
memory chips to process instructions faster than main memory.
.

1.2 Computer Components Cache (Cont )

1.2 Computer Components - L1 Cache (Cont )

All modern processors include an
L1 Cache built into Processor
integrated L1 cache and controller.
Because L1 cache is built into the
processor die, it runs at full-core speed of
the processor

Using cache memory reduces a traditional

system bottleneck because system RAM often
is much slower than the CPU

This prevents the processor from having to wait for code and data from much
slower main memory. Without L1 cache, a processor frequently would be forced
to wait until system memory caught up. This eliminates wait states
.

1.2 Computer Components - L2 Cache (Cont )

To mitigate the dramatic slowdown every L2 cache was placed originally on
the Motherboard
time an L1 cache miss occurs, a
secondary L2 cache can be used

Typically L2 cache is 512k of SRAM for data

that is predictable but cant fit into L1 cache.
L2 cache allows the CPU to continue
processing without waiting for transfers from
very slow system RAM.

With the redesign of the Pentium II, Intel improved a computers performance by
moving the L2 cache from the motherboard directly into the processor and
running it at the same speed as the main processor.

1.2 Computer Components - L3 Cache (Cont )

As more and more processors begin to include L2 cache into
their architectures, Level 3 cache is now the name for the
extra cache built into motherboards between the
microprocessor and the main memory.
Level 3 or L3 cache is specialized memory that works hand-inhand with L1 and L2 cache to improve computer performance.

1.2 Computer Components - Integrated Circuits (Cont )

Why isnt the system unit filled with a lot of wires?

Most electronic components inside a

computer are integrated circuits - thin
slices of silicon crystal packed with
microscopic circuit elements
wires
transistors
capacitors
resistors

1.2 Computer Components - The Motherboard (Cont )

How do the chips fit together to make a computer?

Chips are housed on a circuit board called a

motherboard.
contains processor chip
computer memory chips
chips that handle basic input/output

contains expansion slots for peripheral devices

Some chips are soldered (permanent), some are

removable (can be upgraded)

1.2 Computer Components Motherboard (Cont )

CMOS/RTC
Power
Super
Connector I/O

Memory
Sockets
North Bridge
Process
or
Socket/
Slot

Expansion Bus
Slots

BI
OS

South
Bridge

1.2 Computer Components Processor Sockets/Slots (Cont )

The CPU is installed in either a socket or a

slot, depending on the type of chip.

Socket

Slot 1

1.2 Computer Components BIOS

(Basic Input / Output System) (Cont )

First system computer scans

when turned on.

Determines systems
configuration

Stored in a nonvolatile
CMOS chip

Determines which peripherals

the system can support

1.2 Computer Components Chipsets (Cont )

The Chipset is the
Motherboard;
therefore, any
two boards with
the same chipsets
are identical
The processor
cannot talk to
the memory,
adapter boards,
devices, and so
on, without
going through
the chipset
All circuits are
contained within
the chipset

Processor system bus called the front side bus (FSB)

I/O Controller

Memory controller
(North bridge)
Bus Controller
(South Bridge)

The chipset is the framework in which the CPU rests

and its connection to the outside world. The chipset
acts as a bridge between each system bus

1.2 Computer Components North Bridge (Cont )

The North Bridge is the connection between
the high-speed Processor bus and the slower
AGP and PCI buses
The North Bridge is
often referred to as
the PAC (PCI/AGP
controller)

It is essentially the main

component of the
motherboard and is the
only circuit that runs at
full Processor Bus speed
430 FX Chipset

440 LX Chipset
440 ZX Chipset

1.2 Computer Components South Bridge (Cont )

The South Bridge is the lower-speed
component in the chipset
South Bridge contains all components
that make up the ISA Bus, including the
Interrupt and DMA controllers
82371 EB South Bridge
South Bridge connects to the 33MHz PCI bus
and contains the interface to the 8 MHZ ISA bus
82371 FB South Bridge
Normally contains dual IDE hard disk controller
interfaces, one or two USB, the CMOS RAM and
RTC Clock functions

1.2 Computer Components Super I/O Chip (Cont )

Contains the Primary and Secondary IDE

controller, Floppy Controller, two Serial
Ports, and a Parallel Port
In newer Motherboards, the Super I/O
has been placed into the South Bridge

AT Super I/O Controller

The Super I/O allows you to plug in devices and have them work just
like any other device that is plugged into an Expansion Slot

1.3 An Example System

Computers with large main memory capacity can run larger
programs with greater speed than computers having small
memories.
RAM is an acronym for random access memory. Random
access means that memory contents can be accessed directly if
you know its location.
Cache is a type of temporary memory that can be accessed
faster than RAM.

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1.3 An Example System (Cont )

Serial ports send data as a series of pulses along one or two
data lines.
Parallel ports send data as a single pulse along at least eight
data lines.
USB, Universal Serial Bus, is an intelligent serial interface that is
self-configuring. (It supports plug and play.)

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1.3 An Example System (Cont )

Consider this advertisement:

What does it all mean??

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1.3 An Example System (Cont )

This system has 4GB of (fast)
synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM) .
..

and two levels of cache memory, the level 1 (L1) cache is smaller
and (probably) faster than the L2 cache. Note that these cache sizes
are measured in KB and MB.

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1.3 An Example System (Cont )

Hard disk capacity determines the
amount of data and size of programs
you can store.

This one can store 500GB. 7200 RPM is the rotational speed of
the disk. Generally, the faster a disk rotates, the faster it can
deliver data to RAM. (There are many other factors involved.)

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1.3 An Example System (Cont )

ATA stands for advanced technology attachment, which describes
how the hard disk interfaces with (or connects to) other system
components.

A DVD can store about 4.7GB

of data. This drive supports
rewritable DVDs, +/-RW, that
can be written to many times..
16x describes its speed.

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1.3 An Example System (Cont )

Ports allow movement of data between a
system and its external devices.

This system has ten

ports.

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1.3 An Example System (Cont )

System buses can be augmented by dedicated

I/O buses. PCI, peripheral component
interface, is one such bus.

This system has two PCI devices: a

video card and a sound card.

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1.3 An Example System (Cont )

The number of times per second that the image on a monitor is
repainted is its refresh rate. The dot pitch of a monitor tells us
how clear the image is.

This one has a dot pitch of

0.24mm and a refresh rate
of 75Hz.

The video card contains memory

and programs that support the
monitor.
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1.4 The Computer Level Hierarchy

Computers consist of many things besides chips.
Before a computer can do anything worthwhile, it must also use
software.
Writing complex programs requires a divide and conquer
approach, where each program module solves a smaller problem.
Complex computer systems employ a similar technique through a
series of virtual machine layers.

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1.4 The Computer Level Hierarchy (Cont )

Each virtual machine layer is an
abstraction of the level below it.
The machines at each level
execute their own particular
instructions, calling upon
machines at lower levels to
perform tasks as required.
Computer circuits ultimately carry
out the work.

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1.4 The Computer Level Hierarchy (Cont )

Level 6: The User Level
Program execution and user interface level.
The level with which we are most familiar.

Level 5: High-Level Language Level

The level with which we interact when we write programs in
languages such as C, Pascal, Lisp, and Java.

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1.4 The Computer Level Hierarchy (Cont )

Level 4: Assembly Language Level
Acts upon assembly language produced from Level 5, as well as
instructions programmed directly at this level.
Level 3: System Software Level
Controls executing processes on the system.
Protects system resources.

Assembly language instructions often pass through Level 3

without modification.

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1.4 The Computer Level Hierarchy (Cont )

Level 2: Machine Level
Also known as the Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) Level.
Consists of instructions that are particular to the architecture
of the machine.
Programs written in machine language need no compilers,
interpreters, or assemblers.

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1.4 The Computer Level Hierarchy (Cont )

Level 1: Control Level
A control unit decodes and executes instructions and moves data
through the system.
Control units can be microprogrammed or hardwired.
A microprogram is a program written in a low-level language that
is implemented by the hardware.
Hardwired control units consist of hardware that directly executes
machine instructions.

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1.4 The Computer Level Hierarchy (Cont )

Level 0: Digital Logic Level
This level is where we find digital circuits (the chips).
Digital circuits consist of gates and wires.
These components implement the mathematical logic of all
other levels.

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