Computer System

Organization
Understanding Computer Hardware

Shermeen Adnan
Personal Computer Systems: An Overview
• Laptops, desktops, tower computers
• IBM PC Clones (Wintel machines)
• Macs
Operating System
• Exploits the hardware resources of one or more processors
• Provides a set of services to system users
• Manages secondary memory and I/O devices
• The operating system sets the rules for using memory, drives, and
other parts of the computer.
• creates a common platform for all the software
• Provides tools for all the tasks you want to perform outside an
application program
• OS depends on the cooperation of other programs, BIOS and software
drivers
Operating System
• The BIOS-or basic input/output system
• code contained on chips in a Pc
• acts as the intermediary among the hardware, processor, and operating systems.
• Device drivers
• specialized BIOS
• coded instructions for a specific hardware peripheral contained in a file and copied to
the computer when that device is installed.
• translate commands from the operating system and BIOS into instructions for a
specific piece of hardware
• When some parts of the operating system are loaded from disk, they are
added to the BIOS and then joined by device drivers, and all of them carry
out routine hardware functions.
Types of OS
• Real -Time Operating Systems (RTOS)
• Normally used to control scientific machinery
• Ensures that a given task occurs in precisely the time allocated for it
• Typically not user friendly
• Single User, Single –Task
• At one time, only one task (application, program) can run on the computer
• Eg. DOS, Palm OS
• Single -User, Multi –Task
• Most common type on desktops
• E.g. Microsoft Windows, Apple’s MacOS
• Multi –User
• Allows several users to work simultaneously on a computer
• Mainly run on servers
• E.g. UNIX
Operating System
• How PC loads the operating system from disk to random access
memory (RAM)
• Bootstrap
• a small amount of code that's a permanent part of the PC, or simply to boot.
• it has only two functions
• one is to run a POST, or power-on self-test
• the other is to search drives for an operating system
• When these functions are complete, the boot operation launches the
process of reading the system files and copying them to RAM.
Question of the day

Why do PCs use such a roundabout

arrangement? Why not simply make the
operating system a part of the PC?
How the Power-OnSelf-Test Gets Your PC
Started
How a Disk Boot Wakes Up Your PC
How a Disk Boot Wakes Up Your PC
How a Disk Boot Wakes Up Your PC
How a Disk Boot Wakes Up Your PC
How Hardware and Software work Together?
• you want to save a document
• command is handed off to the operating system
• OS turns over the job to job of saving the document to the BIOS and the
driver
• In older systems the BIOS itself sends the instructions along with the data
to the mechanism that controls the disk drive. On new systems, the BIOS is
more likely to retrieve the instructions from the device driver.
• The controller mechanism translates the instructions from the BIOS/driver
into the electrical signals that move the drive's read/write heads to the
proper locations on the disk
How hardware tells the
CPU what to do?
1. Electrical signal travels through circuit to the keyboard controller
2. interrupt is sent to interrupt request (IRQ) lines (16)
3. The controller relays a signal to interrupt controller (interference
between the CPU and the 256 possible kinds of interrupts)
4. They keep an eye on input/output bus
5. The interrupt controller sends a signal to one of the pins sticking
out of the bottom of the CPU called the INTR, used for normal
interrupt signals.
6. The CPU puts whatever it was doing on hold. This takes the form
of a memory address written to a stack.
7. The CPU checks a section of memory called the interrupt
descriptor table (lDT) to determine the correct response
to interrupts and exceptions. IDT tells the processor
what Interrupt Service Routine (ISR) to call to handle the
interrupt
8. When the ISR completes its job, it sends a return from interrupt
(RET) instruction to the CPU to inform CPU to resume its task
Basic Elements
• Processor
• Controls the operation of the computer
• Performs the data processing functions
• Referred to as the Central Processing Unit (CPU)
• Main memory
• Volatile
• Contents of the memory is lost when the computer is shut down
• Referred to as real memory or primary memory
Basic Elements
• I/O modules

• System Bus
• Provides for communication among processors, main memory, and I/O
modules
Computer Components: Top-Level View
Microprocessor
• Invention that brought about desktop and handheld computing
• Processor on a single chip
• Fastest general purpose processor
• Multiprocessors
• Each chip (socket) contains multiple processors (cores)
Graphical Processing Units (GPU’s)
• Provide efficient computation on arrays of data using Single-
Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) techniques
• Used for general numerical processing
• Physics simulations for games
• Computations on large spreadsheets
Digital Signal Processors (DSPs)
• Deal with streaming signals such as audio or video
• Used to be embedded in devices like modems
• Encoding/decoding speech and video (codecs)
• Support for encryption and security
System on a Chip (SoC)
• To satisfy the requirements of handheld devices, the microprocessor
is giving way to the SoC
• Components such as DSPs, GPUs, codecs and main memory, in
addition to the CPUs and caches, are on the same chip
Instruction Execution
• A program consists of a set of instructions stored in memory
Basic Instruction Cycle
Instruction Fetch and Execute
• The processor fetches the instruction from memory
• Program counter (PC) holds address of the instruction to be fetched
next
• PC is incremented after each fetch
• Fetched instruction is loaded into Instruction Register (IR)
• Processor interprets the instruction and performs required action
• Processor-memory
• Processor-I/O
• Data processing
• Control
Interrupts
• Interrupt the normal sequencing of the processor
• Provided to improve processor utilization
• most I/O devices are slower than the processor
• processor must pause to wait for device
• wasteful use of the processor
Classes of Interrupts
Instruction Cycle with interrupt
Multiple Interrupts
• An interrupt occurs while another interrupt is being processed • e.g.
receiving data from a communications line and printing results at the
same time
• Two approaches
• disable interrupts while an interrupt is being processed
• use a priority scheme
Presentation Topics
• How a fixed Disk Drive Work?
• How a CD-ROM Drive Work?
• How a Mechanical Mouse Work?
• How a Super-VGA Display Work?
• How an LCD Screen work?