Computer System Architecture

Unit I ( Jan 2023 session )

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 Overview
• Digital Computer
• Definition of Computer Organization and Computer
Architecture
• Bus architecture
• Register Transfer language
• Register Transfer, Bus and memory transfers
• Arithmetic logic and shift
• Micro operations
• Arithmetic Algorithms (addition, subtraction,
• Booth Multiplication)
• IEEE standard for Floating point numbers.
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 Digital Computer
• The digital computer is a digital system that performs various
computational tasks.
• Digital computers use the binary number system, which has
two digits: 0 and 1. A binary digit is called a bit. Information is
represented in digital computers in groups of bits.
• Function of Computer: Data Processing, Data Control, Data
Movement ,& Control.

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Components of a Computer System
Block Diagram

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 Central Processing Unit (CPU)
• The program control unit has a set of registers and control circuit to generate
control signals.
• The execution unit or data processing unit contains a set of registers for storing
data and an Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) for execution of arithmetic and
logical operations.

CPU Components
• Control Unit (CU): Controls the
operation of the CPU and hence the
computer
• Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU):
Performs computer’s data processing
functions.
• Register: Provides storage internal to
the CPU.
• CPU Interconnection: communication
among the control unit, ALU, and
register. 6
 Storage elements – Primary Memory
• Memory unit is used to store the data and program. CPU can work with
the information stored in memory unit. This memory unit is termed as
primary memory or main memory module. These are basically semi
conductor memories
• Volatile Memory : RAM (Random Access Memory).
• Non-Volatile Memory : ROM (Read only Memory), PROM (Programmable
ROM) EPROM
• (Erasable PROM), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable PROM).

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 Memory Organization
• Memory consists of millions of storage cells each storing a bit (0/1) of
information
• Bits are held in groups of fixed size - requires basic operation
• Each n-bit group is called a Word (n describes the word length)
• Memory is a collection of words
• Each location of memory has an unique address

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 Storage Elements – Secondary
Memory
• Secondary memories are non volatile memory and it
is used for permanent storage of data and program.
Example of secondary memories: Hard Disk, USB
Drives, CD-ROM

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 Input Unit
• Program or data is read into main storage
from input device or secondary storage under
the control of CPU input instruction.

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 Output Unit
• Used to Provide results to the user.
• Data from main storage in transferred to the
output units under control of CPU output
instructions

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 How does the computer work ?
• Computer needs to be programmed to do such tasks
• Programming is the process of writing instructions in a
language that can be understood by the computer so that a
desired task can be performed by it
• Program: sequence of instructions to do a task, computer
processes the instructions sequentially one after the other
• Software: programs for doing tasks on computers
• CPU understands machine language
• Different strings of 0’s and 1’s (Hard to remember)
• Mnemonic names of the strings - Instruction set
• Alternate way to instruct CPU–use high level language

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High Level Language – Assembly –
Machine Code

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 What Happens After Loading?
• CPU fetches the compiled code sequentially from memory to
its registers
• Executes the code using Arithmetic and Logic Unit on
instructions from the Control Unit

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 Computer Architecture and
Organization
• Computer Organization: Computer organization is concerned with the way
the hardware compo-nents operate and the way they are connected
together to form the computer system.
• Computer Architecture: Computer architecture is concerned with the
structure and behavior of the computer as seen by the user.

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Computer Generations

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Improvement in Chip Organization and
Architecture
• Increase hardware speed of processor
– Fundamentally due to shrinking logic gate size
• More gates, packed more tightly, increasing clock rate
• Propagation time for signals reduced
• Increase size and speed of caches
– Dedicating part of processor chip
• Cache access times drop significantly
• Change processor organization and architecture
– Increase effective speed of execution
• Parallelism

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 Problems with Clock Speed and Logic
density
• Power
– Power density increases with density of logic and clock speed
– Dissipating heat
• RC delay
– Speed at which electrons flow limited by resistance and capacitance of metal
wires connecting them
– Delay increases as RC product increases
– Wire interconnects thinner, increasing resistance
– Wires closer together, increasing capacitance
• Memory latency
– Memory speeds lag processor speeds
Solution: More emphasis on organizational and architectural approaches
– Cache memory
– Pipelining
– Multicore processors etc.

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 Bus architecture
• A system bus is a single computer bus that connects the major
components of a computer system, combining the functions of
a data bus to carry information, an address bus to determine
where it should be sent or read from, and a control bus to
determine its operation.

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 Register Transfer Language
• The symbolic notation used to describe the micro-operation
transfer among registers is called RTL (Register Transfer Language).
• The use of symbols instead of a narrative explanation provides an
organized and concise manner for listing the micro-operation
sequences in registers and the control functions that initiate them.
• A register transfer language is a system for expressing in symbolic
form the micro operation sequences among the registers of a digital
module.
• It is a convenient tool for describing the internal organization of
digital computers in concise and precise manner.
• Register transfer language
– A symbolic language
– A convenient tool for describing the internal organization of digital
computers
– Can also be used to facilitate the design process of digital systems

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 Registers
• Computer registers are designated by upper case letters (optionally
followed by digits or letters) to denote the register.
• The register that holds an address for the memory unit is usually called a
memory address register (MAR).
• Other designations for registers are PC (program counter), IR (instruction
register, and R1 (processor register).
• The individual bit is an flip-flops is numbered in sequence from 0 through
n-1 (right to left).
• 16-bit register is partitioned into two parts. Bits 0 to 7 are low byte (L) and
bits 8 to 15 are high byte (H).

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 Register Transfer
• The statement R2← R1 denotes a transfer of the content of
register R1 into register R2.
– replacement of the content of R2 by the content of R1.
– the content of the source register R 1 does not change after the
transfer.
• If we want the transfer with control condition
if (P=1) then R2← R1
– P is the control signal generated by a control section.
• Control function is included in the statement as
P: R2← R1
• Colon implies transfer operation be executed by the
hardware only if P=1.

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 Register Transfer
• P is activated in the control
section by the rising edge of a
clock pulse at time t.
• The next positive transition of
the clock at time t + 1 finds the
load input active and the data
inputs of R2 are then loaded
into the register in parallel.
• P go back to 0 at time t+1.

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 Bus and Memory Transfers
• A more efficient scheme for transferring information
between registers in a multiple-register configuration is
a Common Bus System.
• A common bus consists of a set of common lines, one
for each bit of a register.
• Control signals determine which register is selected by
the bus during each particular register transfer.
• Different ways of constructing a Common Bus System
– Using Multiplexers
– Using Tri-state Buffers

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 Bus and Memory Transfers
Common bus system is with multiplexers

• The register transfer is symbolized as

BUS← C, R1← BUS

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 Bus and Memory Transfers
Three-State Bus Buffers
• Two of the states are signals equivalent to logic 1 and 0 as in a
conventional gate.
• The third state is a high-impedance state.
• The high-impedance state behaves like an open circuit, which
means that the output is disconnected and does not have
logic significance.

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 Memory Transfer
• The transfer of information from a memory is called a read operation.
• The transfer of new information to be stored into the memory is called a
write operation.
• A memory word will be symbolized by the letter M.
• Consider a memory unit that receives the address from a register, called
address register (AR).
• The data are transferred to another register, called data register (DR).
• The read operation can be stated as
Read: DR<- M [AR]
• This causes a transfer of information into DR from the memory word M
selected by the address in AR.
• The write operation transfers the content of a data register to a memory
word M selected by the address. Assume that the input data are in
register R1 and the address is in AR.
Write: M [AR] <- R1

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 Micro operations
• The operations executed on values stored in registers are called as
micro-operations.

• Another micro operation, Register Transfer Micro-operations: Transfer

binary information from one register to another
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 Arithmetic Micro-operations
• The arithmetic Micro-operation defined by the statement
below specifies the addition micro-operation.
R3 ← R1 + R2
• It states that the contents of R1 are added to contents of R2
and sum is transferred to R3.

• An n-bit binary adder requires n full-adders.

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 Arithmetic Micro-operations
• Subtraction is most often implemented
through complementation and addition.
R3 ← R1 + R2’ + 1
• R2’ is the symbol for the 1’s complement of R2
• Adding 1 to 1’s complement produces 2’s
complement
• Adding the contents of R1 to the 2's
complement of R2 is equivalent to R1-R2
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 Binary Adder – Substractor
• When M = 0 the circuit is an adder and when M = 1 the circuit becomes a
substractor.
• When M = 0, we have B xor 0 = B. The full-adders receive the value of B, Co =
0, and the circuit performs A plus B.
• When M = 1, we have B xor 1 = B' and Co = 1.
• The B inputs are all complemented and a 1 is added through the input carry.
• The circuit performs the operation A plus the 2's complement of B.

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Booth multiplication

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Arithmetic Circuit

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 Logic Micro-operations
• Logic micro operations specify binary
operations for strings of bits stored in
registers.
• These operations consider each bit of the
register separately and treat them as binary
variables
• Exclusive-OR micro operation with the
contents of two registers R1 and R2 is

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 Some Applications
• Logic micro-operations are very useful for manipulating
individual bits or a portion of a word stored in a register.

• The selective-set operation sets to 1 the bits in

register A where there are corresponding l's in
register B. (OR)
• The selective-complement operation complements
bits in A where there are corresponding 1's in B.
(ex-OR)
• The selective-clear operation clears to 0 the bits in
A only where there are corresponding l's in B.
• The mask operation is similar to the selective-clear
operation except that the bits of A are cleared only
where there are corresponding O's in B .
• The clear operation compares the words in A and B
and produces an all 0's result if the two numbers
are equal.

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 Shift Micro operations
• Shift micro operations are used for serial transfer of data.
• The contents of a register can be shifted to the left or the right.

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Circular shift implementation

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 Arithmetic Shift
• An arithmetic shift is a micro operation that shifts
a signed binary number to the left or right.
• An arithmetic shift-left multiplies a signed binary
number by 2.
• An arithmetic shift-right divides the number by 2.
• Arithmetic shifts must leave the sign bit
unchanged because the sign of the number
remains the same when it is multiplied or divided
by 2.
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Arithmetic shift implementation

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 IEEE standard for Floating point
numbers
• IEEE developed the IEEE 754 floating-point standard. This
standard defines set formats and operation modes. All
computers conforming to this standard would always calculate
the same result for the same computation. This standard does
not specify arithmetic procedures and hardware to be used to
perform computations.

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