CS 333

Computer Architecture

Chapter 2 (Part 1) : Computer

Evolution

Dr. Olfa Mosbahi

Computer Architecture
 Architecture and Organization

❖ Distinction between architecture and

organization:
❖ Computer architecture:
Attributes visible to the programmer
Instruction set, number of bits used for data representation,
I/O mechanisms, memory addressing techniques
❖ Computer organization:
How features are implemented
Realize the architectural specifications
Hardware details transparent to programmer
Control signals, interfaces between computer and
peripherals, memory technology

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 Architecture and Organization

❖ Computer manufacturers offer a family of

models:
Same architecture
Different organizations
❖ Examples:
All Intel x86 family share the same basic architecture
The IBM System/370 family share the same basic
architecture
❖ What are the benefits?
Code compatibility (at least backwards)
Customization (different constraints on performance
and price)

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 Architecture and Organization

❖ Example: instruction set architecture

A very important abstraction
Interface between hardware and low-level software
Standardizes instructions, machine language bit patterns,
etc.
❖ Advantage
Different implementations of the same architecture
❖ Disadvantage
May prevent new innovations
❖ Modern instruction set architectures:
IA-32, IA-64, PowerPC, MIPS, SPARC…

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 Structure and Function

❖ Describe computers: hierarchical

approach
❖ At each level:
Set of components and their relationships
Behavior is based on abstract description of lower
level
Designer only concerned with:
❧ Structure
❧ Function
at that level

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 Structure and Function

❖ Structure
the way in which components relate to each other
❖ Function
the operation of individual components as part of the
structure
❖ Will examine computer systems in a top
down approach

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 Function

❖ Computer functions:
Data processing
❧ Only a few fundamental types of processing
Data storage
❧ Short term
❧ Long term
Data movement
❧ Between itself and outside world
❧ I/O to peripherals
❧ Data communication
Control
❧ Manages the functions above

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 Functional View

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 Operations

(a) Data movement

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 Operations

(b) Storage

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 Operations

(c) Processing from/to storage

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 Operations

(d) Processing from storage to I/O

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 Structure – Top Level

Peripherals Computer

Central Main
Processing Memory
Unit

Computer
Systems
Interconnection

Input
Output
Communication
lines

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 Structure – The CPU

CPU

Computer Arithmetic
Registers and
I/O Logic Unit
System CPU
Bus
Internal CPU
Memory Interconnection

Control
Unit

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 Structure – The Control Unit

(microprogrammed implementation)
Control Unit

CPU
Sequencing
ALU Logic
Control
Internal
Unit
Bus
Control Unit
Registers Registers and
Decoders

Control
Memory

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 History of Computers

❖ Mechanical Era (1600s-1940s)

Wilhelm Schickhard (1623)

❧ Astronomer and mathematician
❧ Automatically add, subtract, multiply, and divide

Blaise Pascal (1642)

❧ Mathematician
❧ Mass produced first working machine (50 copies)
❧ Could only add and subtract
❧ Maintenance and labor problems

Gottfried Liebniz (1673)

❧ Mathematician and inventor
❧ Improved on Pascal’s machine
❧ Add, subtract, multiply, and divide

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 History of Computers

Charles Babbage (1822)

❧ Mathematician
❧ “Father of modern computer”
❧ Wanted more accuracy in calculations
❧ Difference engine
– Government / science agreement
– Automatic computation of math tables
❧ Analytic engine
– Perform any math operation
– Punch cards
– Modern structure: I/O, storage, ALU
– Add in 1 second, multiply in 1 minute
– Both engines plagued by mechanical problems

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 History of Computers

George Boole (1847)

❧ Mathematical analysis of logic
❧ Investigation of laws of thought
Herman Hollerith (1889)
❧ Modern day punched card machine
❧ Formed Tabulating Machine Company (became IBM)
❧ 1880 census took 5 years to tabulate
❧ Tabulation estimates
– 1890: 7.5 years
– 1900: 10+ years
❧ Hollerith’s tabulating machine reduced the 7.5 year estimate to
2 months

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 History of Computers

Konrad Zuse (1938)

❧ Built first working mechanical computer (running programs):
Z1
❧ Binary machine
❧ German government decided not to pursue development –
W.W.II already started

Howard Aiken (1943)

❧ Designed the Harvard Mark I
❧ Implementation of Babbage’s machine
❧ Built by IBM

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 History of Computers

❖ Mechanical era summary

Mechanical computers were designed to reduce the
time required for calculations and increase accuracy
of the results
Two drawbacks
❧ Speed of operation limited by the inertia of moving parts
(gears and pulleys)
❧ Cumbersome, unreliable, and expensive

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 History of Computers

❖ The Electronic Era

❖ Generation 1 (1945 - 1958) : vacuum tubes
ENIAC
❧ Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer
❧ Developed for calculating artillery firing tables
❧ Designed by Mauchly and Echert of the University of Pennsylvania
❧ Generally regarded as the first electronic computer
❧ Handles signed 10-digit numbers
❧ Decimal number system used
❧ Programmed by manually setting switches
❧ Punched cards are used for I/O

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 History of Computers

ENIAC – cont.
❧ Really big!
– 18,000 vacuum tubes
– 70,000 resistors
– 10,000 capacitors
– 6,000 switches
– 30 tons
– 15,000 square feet
– 140 kW power consumption
– 5,000 additions per second

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 History of Computers

IAS (Institute for Advanced Studies)

❧ von Neumann and Goldstine
❧ Took idea of ENIAC and developed the concept of storing a
program in the memory
❧ This architecture came to be known as the “von Neumann
architecture” and has been the basis for virtually every
machine designed since then
❧ Features
– Data and instructions (programs) are stored in a single
read-write memory
– Memory contents are addressable by location, regardless
of the content itself
– Sequential execution
❧ Lots of initial and long-term fighting over patents, rights,
credits, firsts, etc.

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 History of Computers

❖ Generation 2 (1958 - 1964) : Transistors

Technological changes
Transistors
System software and high level languages
Floating point arithmetic
❖ Generation 3 (1964 - 1974) : Integrated
Circuits
Introduction of integrated circuits
Semiconductor memory
Microprogramming
Multiprogramming

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 History of Computers

❖ Generation 4 (1974 - present) : VLSI

Large scale integration / VLSI
Single board computers
❖ Generation 5 (? - ?)
VLSI / ULSI
Computer communications networks
Artificial intelligence
Massively parallel machines

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History of Computers

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 Von Neumann Machine

❖ Concept of stored program

Main memory storing programs and data
❖ ALU operating on binary data
❖ Control unit interpreting instructions
from memory and executing
❖ Input and output equipment operated by
control unit
❖ IAS (Institute for Advanced Studies) at
Princeton
❖ Completed in 1952

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Structure of von Neumann Machine

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 ISA

❖ 1000 x 40 bit words

Binary representation of data and
instructions
2 x 20 bit instructions

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 IAS

❖ Set of registers (storage in CPU)

Memory Buffer Register
Memory Address Register
Instruction Register
Instruction Buffer Register
Program Counter
Accumulator
Multiplier Quotient

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 IAS Structure

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 IAS Instructions

❖ Total of 21 instructions, grouped in:

Data transfer
Unconditional branch
Conditional branch
Arithmetic
Address modify

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 First Commercial Computers

❖ 1947 - Eckert-Mauchly Computer

Corporation
❖ UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer)
❖ US Bureau of Census 1950 calculations
❖ Became part of Sperry-Rand Corporation
❖ Late 1950s - UNIVAC II
Faster
More memory
Upward/backward compatible

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 IBM

❖ Punched-card processing equipment

❖ 1953 - the 701
IBM’s first stored program computer
Scientific calculations
❖ 1955 - the 702
Business applications
❖ Lead to 700/7000 series

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 Transistors

❖ Replaced vacuum tubes

❖ Smaller
❖ Cheaper
❖ Less heat dissipation
❖ Solid State device
❖ Made from silicon
❖ Invented 1947 at Bell Labs
❖ William Shockley et al.

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 Transistor-Based Computers

❖ Second generation machines

❖ NCR & RCA produced small transistor
machines
❖ IBM 7000 series
❖ DEC - 1957
Produced PDP-1

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 IBM 7094

❖ Innovation: data
channels
Independent I/O
modules with their own
processor and
instruction set

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 Integrated Circuits

❖ So far – discrete components

❖ Micro electronics
Computer – made up of gates, memory cells
and interconnections

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 Integrated Circuits

❖ Idea
Manufacture entire
circuits (components
and their
interconnections)
directly on a
semiconductor

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 Computer Generations

❖ Vacuum tube: 1946-1957

❖ Transistor: 1958-1964
❖ Small scale integration: from 1965
Up to 100 devices on a chip
❖ Medium scale integration: to 1971
100 - 3,000 devices on a chip
❖ Large scale integration: 1971-1977
3,000 - 100,000 devices on a chip
❖ Very large scale integration: 1978 -1991
100,000 - 100,000,000 devices on a chip
❖ Ultra large scale integration: 1991 - ?
Over 100,000,000 devices on a chip

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 Moore’s Law

❖ Increased density of components on

chip
❖ Gordon Moore – co-founder of Intel
In April of 1965, Electronics magazine published an article
by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore.
“Number of transistors on a chip will double
every year”
❖ Since 1970’s development has slowed
a little
Number of transistors doubles every 18 months

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 Moore’s Law

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 Announcements

❖ Readings
Chapter 2

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