Computer Architecture

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Unit 9: Assignment 3        9/30/2008


Unit 9 – Computer Architecture

Assignment 3

Table of Contents

Task 1

Von Neumann Architecture

Definitions (Wikipedia n.d.)

Memory –                          Where the data to be read or executed is located.

                

Control Unit –         The control unit coordinates and controls all the operations carried out by the computer. It operates by repeating three operations: fetch, decode and execute.

ALU (accumulator) –         The ALU can perform two sorts of operations on data. Arithmetic operations include addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Logical operations consist of comparing one data item with another to determine whether the first data is smaller than, equal to or greater than the second data item.

Arithmetic –                         Add, Subtract

Logic –                         If Greater than, If less than

Data manipulation –         Move command, Input command

Flow Control –                 Go to command, Brach off command

Input –                         Data is sent to the input when it is called.

Output –                         Data is outputted when it has been executed.

Instruction Set –         The set of bit patterns that represent all the possible operations for a given processor.

Operand –         The part of a machine instruction that references data or a peripheral device. In the instruction, ADD A to B, A and B are the operands, and ADD is the operation code.

Op-Code –          A field or portion of a digital computer instruction that indicates which action is to be performed by the computer. Also known as command code.

Machine Code –        Machine code or machine language is a system of instructions and data directly executed by a 's . Machine code is the lowest-level of abstraction for representing a computer program. Machine code can only be implemented in the architecture it’s designed around, and is generally not transferable. Another term for Machine Code is Instruction Set; instructions are pattern of bits with different patterns corresponding to different commands in the machine. Therefore if you attempted to transfer machine code from one type of CPU to another it may not work because the instruction corresponds to a different command.

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Current Architectures

Some current computer architectures include:

  •  PowerPC
  •  MIPS
  •  X86
  •  ARM

Task 2

Address Bus –         The address bus (that may be 8, 16 or 32 bits wide) and sends an address to memory.

Data Bus –        The data bus (that maybe 8, 16 or 32 bits wide) and can send/receive data to/from memory.

3-State Buffer –         A tri-state buffer can pass a 1, o a 0 or it can essentially ...

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