Advanced Computer Architecture
In general terms, the architecture of a computer system can be considered as a catalogue of tools or attributes that are visible to the user such as instruction sets, number of bits used for data, addressing techniques, etc
Computer Architecture is concerned with the way hardware components are connected together to form a computer system. It acts as the interface between hardware and software. Computer Architecture helps us to understand the functionalities of a system. A programmer can view architecture in terms of instructions, addressing modes and registers.
While designing a computer system architecture is considered first. Computer Architecture deals with high-level design issues.Architecture involves Logic (Instruction sets, Addressing modes, Data types, Cache optimization)
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Computer Architecture is concerned with the way hardware components are connected together to form a computer system. It acts as the interface between hardware and software. Computer Architecture helps us to understand the functionalities of a system. A programmer can view architecture in terms of instructions, addressing modes and registers.
While designing a computer system architecture is considered first. Computer Architecture deals with high-level design issues.Architecture involves Logic (Instruction sets, Addressing modes, Data types, Cache optimization)
Click here to Watch Video Materials Related to Computer Science Subjects / Courses
Evolution of Computing Devices:
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first computing system designed in the early 1940s. It consisted of 18,000 buzzing electronic switches called vacuum tubes, 42 panels each 9'x 2'x1'. It was organized in U-Shaped around the perimeter of a room with forced air cooling.
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first computing system designed in the early 1940s. It consisted of 18,000 buzzing electronic switches called vacuum tubes, 42 panels each 9'x 2'x1'. It was organized in U-Shaped around the perimeter of a room with forced air cooling.
- Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) design was known as the first digital electronic computer (though not programmable). It was designed and built by John Vincent Atanasoff and his assistant, Clifford E. Berry in 1937.
- In 1941, Z3 was invented by German inventor Konrad Zuse. It was the first working programmable, fully automatic computing machine.
- Transistors were invented in 1947 at Bell Laboratories which were a fraction the size of the vacuum tubes and consumed less power, but still, the complex circuits were not easy to handle.
- Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce invented the Integrated Circuit at the same time. In July 1959 Noyce filed a patent for this.
- In 1968, Robert Noyce co-founded Intel Electronics company which is still the global market leader in IC manufacturing, research, and development.
- In 1983, Lisa was launched as the first personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI) that was sold commercially; it ran on the Motorola 68000, dual floppy disk drives, a 5 MB hard drive and had 1MB of RAM.
- In 1990, Apple released the Macintosh Portable; it was heavy weighing 7.3 kg (16 lb) and extremely expensive. It was not met with great success and was discontinued only two years later.
- In 1990, Intel introduced the Touchstone Delta supercomputer, which had 512 microprocessors. This technological advancement was very significant as it was used as a model for some of the fastest multi-processors systems in the world.
The first documented computer architecture was in the correspondence between Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, describing the analytical engine. When building the computer Z1 in 1936, Konrad Zuse described in two patent applications for his future projects that machine instructions could be stored in the same storage used for data, i.e., the stored-program concept.
Two other early and important examples are:
The term “architecture” in computer literature can be traced to the work of Lyle R. Johnson and Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., members of the Machine Organization department in IBM's main research center in 1959. Johnson had the opportunity to write a proprietary research communication about the Stretch, an IBM-developed supercomputer for Los Alamos National Laboratory (at the time known as Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory). To describe the level of detail for discussing the luxuriously embellished computer, he noted that his description of formats, instruction types, hardware parameters, and speed enhancements were at the level of “system architecture”, a term that seemed more useful than “machine organization”.
The discipline of computer architecture has three main subcategories:
Two other early and important examples are:
- John von Neumann's 1945 paper, First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, which described an organization of logical elements;
- Alan Turing's more detailed Proposed Electronic Calculator for the Automatic Computing Engine, also 1945 and which cited John von Neumann's paper.
The term “architecture” in computer literature can be traced to the work of Lyle R. Johnson and Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., members of the Machine Organization department in IBM's main research center in 1959. Johnson had the opportunity to write a proprietary research communication about the Stretch, an IBM-developed supercomputer for Los Alamos National Laboratory (at the time known as Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory). To describe the level of detail for discussing the luxuriously embellished computer, he noted that his description of formats, instruction types, hardware parameters, and speed enhancements were at the level of “system architecture”, a term that seemed more useful than “machine organization”.
The discipline of computer architecture has three main subcategories:
- Instruction set architecture (ISA): defines the machine code that a processor reads and acts upon as well as the word size, memory address modes, processor registers, and data type.
- Microarchitecture: also known as "computer organization", this describes how a particular processor will implement the ISA. The size of a computer's CPU cache for instance, is an issue that generally has nothing to do with the ISA.
- Systems design: includes all of the other hardware components within a computing system, such as data processing other than the CPU (e.g., direct memory access), virtualization, and multiprocessing.
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