CIM101 : Lecture 04

Organization of a computer
Power Supply Microprocessor
Memory
-DRAM
- Cache
- ROM BIOS
Keyboard/
Mouse
Adapter
Port
Printer
Port
Adapter
Display
Port
Adapter
Hard Disk
Drive
Adapter
Floppy Disk
Drive
Adapter
Port
Port
Port
Port
System
Bus
Expansion Bus
Slots
Cards are installed
here
Adapters
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The major components of the PC
Processor
I/O devices
Memory
Bus
Adapters
Port
Expansion slot
Storage device
Display
Keyboard
Printer





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The major components of the
PC (Cont.)
Mouse
Power supply
Cooling
FDD
HDD
CD-ROM drives

Bus
They connect CPU to each of the memory and I/O
devices.
A collection of wires that act as paths between
the components of a computer.
Example
To read/write data from/to memory, a bus is needed.
Types of buses
Three buses:
Address bus
Data bus
Control bus
Address bus
Collection of parallel wires.
Unidirectional, information flows over it only in one direction.
The number of wires indicate the maximum number of memory
addresses. E.g. 20 wires mean 2^20 = 1MB memory.
CPU uses this to address memory and other I/O devices.
Before accessing a particular location in memory or a particular I/O
device, the CPU places the address of that in the address bus.
The address is decoded to select the particular location or device.
Data bus
Bidirectional.
Used for read/write.
Can be either input or output depending on whether the CPU perform
a READ or WRITE operation.
The number of wires determines the speed at which data can be
read/written.
To read, 1
st
address is sent using the address bus to enable the desired
memory location or I/O device and then memory or the I/O device
places the data on the data bus which is read by the CPU.
To write, 1
st
address is sent using the address bus to enable the
desired memory location or I/O device and CPU places data on the
data bus which is received by the selected memory or I/O device.
Control bus
A set of signals that is used to control the activities of different
components of the computer in a smooth way.
Some are sent by CPU to other components to tell them the
type of operation in progress.
Also I/O device sends control signal to CPU to indicate its
status.
Example
Read/Write, Reset, Interrupt etc.
Figure of Microprocessor Local Buses
Microprocessor
(CPU)
Address Bus
Data Bus
Control Bus
System bus
The 3 buses together are called the system bus
and are guided in parallel to the bus slots.
Several bus architectures used in microcomputers
are:
AT, ISA, EISA, IBM etc.
The PCI BUS
It stands for peripheral component interconnect.
Introduced by Intel.
Defines a local bus that allows up to ten PCI complaint expansion cards to
be plugged into the computer.
One of these ten cards must be the PCI controller card and others are video
card, network interface card etc.
PCI controller exchanges information with the computers processor as 32-
bit or 64-bit words and allows PCI adapters to perform certain tasks
concurrently with the main processor.
PCI can operate at a bus speed of 32MHz.
Adapters
Allow processor to communicate with and control I/O or
storage devices.
A set of hardware circuitry.
Connects to system bus.
Acts as an interface/bridge.
Example: serial port adapter, connects to system bus, and has
a port where a modem could be attached.



Port
Ports of adapters support attachment of I/O devices.
Expansion slots
Physical connectors.
Can be used to attach extra adapters to allow support of
various types of I/O devices.
Storage devices
Hard disks and CD-ROMS.
Display
Most common CRT
For laptops, LCD.
Needs the display adapter to attach the monitor.

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Keyboard
Has an 8-bit processor inside.
Used to detect key presses/releases.
The adapter itself has an 8-bit processor that gets
keystroke reports from the keyboard processor.
Printer
Attached to parallel port.
8 bits data transfer at a time.
Keyboard- serial mode transfer, bit-by-bit.
Parallel port adapter is normally integrated into the
computer motherboard.
3 popular printers: dot-matrix, laser, ink jet.

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Mouse
Preferred input device.
Used to be connected through serial port.
Now has dedicated PS/2 and USB mouse port.
Other ports and adapters
Most computers have 2 serial ports today : COM1 and
COM2
Has data rate 115 kbps.
Can be of 9 or 25 pins.
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Power supply
Converts standard 220v AC to DC for all the
components of the computer. +5v, -5v, +12v and 12v.
Sometimes supplies AC voltage directly to monitor.
Cooling
A fan to keep the power supply cool.
CPU also has a separate cooling fan.
Large and powerful computers may need cooling for
each individual adapters and the motherboard.


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Floppy disk drives (FDD)
Needed to support floppy disks.
Floppy is a magnetic storage medium.
Now floppy size = 3.5 in diameter and stores 1.44MB of
data.
PCs today have FDD adapter built-in.
Hard disk drives (HDD)
They attach to computer through IDE (intelligent drive
electronics) adapter port.
CD-ROM drives
Can store 700MB of data. 5 in size.
They attach to computer through IDE (intelligent drive
electronics) adapter port.


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Real-time clock and calendar
Its a chip.
Has small nonvolatile memory (64 bytes).
Power supplied by a small battery.
This chip supplies date & time and stores basic
system configuration.
Loss of this information destroys system
configuration.
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