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SYSC3006 1
SYSC-3006 Objective
• Our key objective : To Understand computers at machine level
Applications Software
System Software
System Hardware
SYSC3006 2
Understanding Computer Organization
SYSC3006 3
Computers are Complex Systems
• Problem
– How can we understand programming at a machine level ?
• How do the millions of transistors in a computer support a
program
p g ?
SYSC3006 4
Programmer’s View of a Computer System
• The programmer’s view of a computer depends on the level of the
language being used.
Application Programs
Machine Language
MicroProgram Control
Hardware
SYSC3006 5
Organization of a Simple Computer System
• A Simple Computer System is comprised of four major components -
processor memory
processor, memory,I/O,
I/O bus – that interact indirectly through the bus.
bus
– The objective of the system is associated with attached devices
Central
Processing
Unit
(CPU)
Memory
Program Data Output Input
Processor St
Storage St
Storage Units Units
SYSC3006 8
Observation : Information plays a key role in all components
of the computer system
• What are the hardware limitations of a computer in storing information?
1. A single transistor is switched between two states
• on / off ; high / low ; 0 / 1
– All information information must be encoded in 22-state state values!
– one BInary digiT = one bit = one 2-state value of either 0
or 1
2 Registers,
2. Registers cells and ports are built using fixed numbers of
transistors
• Byte = values that are 8-bits wide
• Information
I f ti isi are encoded
d d in
i a fixed
fi d numberb off bits
bit andd
therefore has a finite limitation of the range of values. For n-bit
width 2n different value
SYSC3006 9
Information Encoding Problem
• How can information be represented as fixed length binary values ?
Fixed
A finite set!
length
Information mapping binary
values
SYSC3006 10