1 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

2 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

Module 1 – Basic organization of a computer system

Introduction:

This module is designed to provide you with basic concepts and techniques that will get
you started in understanding and analysis of hardware and software interaction in computer
systems. Computing is a rapidly changing field, with processor speed doubling every 1.5 years,
and entire computer systems becoming obsolete in two to four years. In this course, you will
learn how computers work, how to analyze computer performance, and what issues affect the
design and function of modern computers.

The development of computers since the late 1930s has led to the corresponding development
of a variety of software and hardware tools and capabilities. In this section of our course notes,
we review several key concepts that you are likely to encounter in this course, and in practice.
In particular, this section reviews the use of abstractions, technology, logic design, and
performance assessment.

The module is divided into 2 lessons, namely:

➢ Lesson 1: Data Representation introduces you the form in which data is stored,
processed, and transmitted. Devices such as smartphones, iPods, and computers store
data in digital formats that can be handled by electronic circuitry.

➢ Lesson 2: Data Logic Design introduces you a system in electrical and computer
engineering that uses simple number values to produce input and output operations. As
a digital design engineer, you may assist in developing cell phones, computers, and
related personal electronic devices.

Module Learning Outcomes:

In this module, you should be able to:

1. identify Data Representation;

2. elucidate Data Logic Design.
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Lesson 1: DATA REPRESENTATION

SPECIFIC LEARNING OUTCOMES:

In this module, Students should be capable of:

➢ describing origins and history;
➢ applying Basic Organization of a Computer System;
➢ applying representing numbers and text;
➢ identifying bits and bytes.

I. Pre – Assessment:

Direction. Write TRUE if the statement is correct and FALSE if it is wrong. Write your answers
on a separate sheet of paper.

_______1. A Platform technology can be defined as a structure or technology from which

various products can emerge without the expense of a new process introduction.

_______2. The advent of World War II increased the demand for more accurate calculations.

_______3. Computer systems span many levels of detail, which in computer science we call
levels of abstraction.

_______4. Input - Provides data and program information

_______5. Output - Result of running program on processor using input

_______6. Control - Implements control of calculation and communication or I/O processes

_______7. Volatile memory: data retains as long as continuous power supply is provided.

_______8. Character data is composed of letters, symbols, and numerals that are not used in
calculations.

_______9. Numeric data consists of numbers that can be used in arithmetic operations.

_______10. All of the data stored and transmitted by digital devices is encoded as bits.
4 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

II. Lesson Map:

The map above simply shows the focus of this lesson.

III. Core Content:

Engage: Make an example of Data Representation.

Explore:

Platform technology

• Technology that enables the creation of products and processes that support present,
future or past developments.

• Consists of hardware, an operating system and coordinating programs that use the
instruction set for a particular processor or microprocessor.

• Computer hardware serves as a platform for an Operating System which in turn is a

platform for an Application Software
5 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

A Platform technology can be defined as a structure or technology from which various products
can emerge without the expense of a new process introduction.

During the past few decades with the rise of the internet platform technologies had become the
new cool. Platforms like the app store or eBay have proven to be some of the most dynamic,
innovative, and fastest growing services but of course the platform model, the system's
architecture has always been there since the invention of farms and factories to the making of
Lego building blocks.

When many people see new technologies at work they go usually consider all the pieces that
went into its creation. They simply see the amazing capabilities and never give it much thought
but within advance and industrial economies many products and services are enabled by the
power of abstraction they are remixes built out services from platform the enables the endless
bundling and re-bundling of different components.

According to Wikipedia "A Platform technology can be defined as a structure or technology from
which various products can emerge without the expense of a new process introduction." in order
to achieve this, our system needs to be architected to have two fundamentally different levels. It
must have the platform providing the basic services that can be combined into different
configuration on the application layer to deliver various instances of the technology to the end
user.

What exactly a non-platform technology is?

Take a hammer for example, it is a homogeneous system. There is no differentiation between

the system's infrastructure and its application; they are all just one thing. It is an instance of a
hammer, it cannot generate new and different configuration of itself.

The same can be set of a car; it is an instance of a technology. The end user gets and uses the
whole thing. To make the comparison clear, we could compare the instance of
6 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

a car with an automobile platform that allows a motor company to release several motor
vehicles build upon a common jazzy which is a platform with different engines, interiors and
form factors for the same or different vehicles and brands within a company.

Probably the clearest and best example of platform technology is our personal computers. Our
platform in this case is the computer's operating system, a set of enabling technologies. In this
case, our foundation layer is our computer hardware and all our low level firmware that
interfaces between it and the operating system.

But within a business our foundation layer might be the economic system that is part of the
public services such as security, rule of law and maintenance of natural resources that will
enable our business to function.

The same would be through of a city, it rest upon and does enabled by a national infrastructure
system.

The next layer up for the foundation or hardware is the platform itself. The computer operating
system in this case, it is essentially manages the computer's resources and services that would
be required by applications. The platform takes the resources available to it from the
infrastructure and creates the Lego bricks that we will be using to build things with. These
resources are presented to producers on the application level through what are called "API's" or
Application Program Interfaces.

In our automotive factory, the platform would be the physical technologies and the production
line for creating the car's parts. Our employees can rearrange this production line to create
different vehicles or in our example the city, this platform level might be urban utilities that
contractors will interface with to build offices and residential places and there will be a standard
set of procedures for them to do this.

On top of the operating system lies the application layer, developers draw on services provided
by the operating system and bundle them in various different combinations the deliver a finished
application to the end user. Apps in the App Store, the cars coming off our production line, the
building in the city or the financial products offered by a bank are examples of the application
layer. Endless configuration and reconfiguration in response to the proceed needs and feedback
of the end users.

Lastly the User Interface Layer, when the end user switches on their computer, they don't want
to see zeroes and ones or lines of code they want to see things they understand; pictures of
files and nice drop down menus. The majority of people who interface with systems we are
architecting will do so, so as to get maximum functionality out with minimum input effort. In order
for them to do this, we need a layer that translates the internal logic of the system into a
language they understand.
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Origins and History

This is a brief overview of computer history.

In this historical epoch, computers were first

developed by the Egyptians, who had the
abacus and shadow clocks. In the preindustrial
era, mechanical calculators were developed by
Pascal and Leibniz. During the Industrial
Revolution, mechanical computers were
envisioned, and parts of such machines were
prototyped, by Charles Babbage. These
computers were not constructed in their
entirety, due to size, weight, and power
requirements that could not be satisfied by the technology of the day. An interesting overview of early
mechanical computers is given in this link.

With the discovery of electricity, electronic

tabulating machines were developed by
Herman Hollerith, whose company was
purchased by Thomas Watson, founder of the
International Business Machines Corporation.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, IBM
marketed a variety of tabulating machines
driven by electrified keyboards and having a

variety of printers. Although unsophisticated, this type of hardware helped the business community
become accustomed to the idea of machine-assisted inventory, payroll, and
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shipping. Additionally, the hardware developed by IBM was modified for use in its early
computers. Thus, it could be said that the era of electro-mechanical tabulating machines in
some ways prepared society for the advent of digital computers.

The advent of World War II increased the

demand for more accurate calculations.
Rooms full of humans were employed in
computing artillery trajectories, and the
result was unacceptable error. A variety of
computing research projects were
undertaken at Princeton University, Harvard
University, and the University of
Pennsylvania. These resulted in room-size computers such as the Mark-I through Mark-IV, and
the ENIAC, all of which used vacuum tubes. The vacuum tube machines were erroneous (tubes
burned out or their response drifted frequently), power-intensive, slow (less than 10,000 integer
multiplications per second), and hard to program, but provided a useful test bed for basic
computer concepts.

After WWII, the business community was

slow to accept computers because of their
cost, size, weight, power consumption, and
the cost of maintaining them (including
programmer salaries). However, the Defense
Department funded computer research
during the early years of the Cold War,
from which resulted the second generation of computers. These machines used transistors
instead of vacuum tubes, and were smaller, less power-consumptive, and easier to use.
Business firms became more interested in computing, and IBM started to manufacture business
and scientific computers (4000 and 7000 series, respectively).

In the 1960s, transistors were integrated first on small circuit boards, and then etched on wafers
called integrated circuits. These were much smaller than the second-generation computer
circuits, and predictably consumed less power, took
up less space, and were easier to repair (or
replace). In the 1960s, many electronics companies
were in business that are no longer building digital
computers today - General Electric, RCA,
Honeywell, and Burroughs, to name but a few.
IBM's System/360 was the first general-purpose
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computer to support both business and scientific calculations, and had a number of operating
system features that were novel for its day, including upward compatibility of software,
programmability of the operating system through a (dreadful) language called OS/JCL, as well as
support for numerous programming languages.

The 1970s saw the advent of much faster and more capable integrated circuits, which made
computers smaller and faster. IBM's System/370 was the workhorse mainframe series of the
era, but was challenged by similar architectures, such as those produced by the Ahmdahl
Corporation. In the 1970s, two
important trends developed in addition
to mainframe computing. First, the
supercomputer was developed largely
due to the efforts of Seymour Cray, who
pioneered high-performance computing
in the 1960s with the CDC6600 that he
developed for Control Data Corporation. Second, the minicomputer was developed by Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC), whose PDP series of machines was the first general-purpose
computer that small universities or research laboratories could afford. A third trend that went
almost unnoticed, was the gradual emergence of personal computers, which were initially the
domain of hobbyists. From these early beginnings came the Apple-II, the world's first affordable,
workable personal computer that could be operated in some ways like its larger ancestors
(mainframe or the minicomputer).

In the 1980s, integrated circuits gave way to very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuit technology,
which eventually packed millions of transistors onto a single chip. This comprised the fourth
generation of computing machine technology. As a
result, personal computers became smaller and faster,
posing a challenge to the minicomputer. The use of VLSI
technology enabled companies like DEC to compete
with the mainframe market by developing
superminicomputers. On the personal computer side of
the market, IBM introduced the IBM/PC in 1980, which revolutionized the desktop by providing
a common, open architecture. A young fellow, who combined ideas from DEC's VMS operating
system and the emerging UNIX operating system, headed a company that was chosen to write
the first extensible PC operating system - MS-DOS. The rest, as they say, is history - Bill Gates
and Microsoft rose with IBM and its processor developer Intel to become the dominant players
in a multi-billion-dollar industry, which eventually eclipsed the mainframe market and consigned
minicomputers, superminicomputers, and microcomputers to the dustbin of history (for all but
the most highly customized applications).
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The 1990s saw the emergence of distributed or

networked computing and the continued proliferation of
personal computers. Another development of the 1990s
was mobile computing, which could become the
dominant paradigm for personal computing in the first
decade of the new millenium. On the supercomputer
front, massively parallel machines were developed to
become more practical, easier to program, and small enough for a mid-sized university to
purchase for research or teaching purposes. Parallel computer technology continues to grow,
supported in part by ever-smaller integrated circuit components and more user-friendly
software. Distributed technology continues to proliferate both in computing and
communication. The Internet and World-Wide Web have unified these paradigms to become
the dominant platforms for the computerized dissemination of knowledge.

Computer systems span many levels of detail, which in computer science we call levels of
abstraction.

▪ Operating System - Provides a convenient interface between (a) the user and his/her
application software, and (b) the hardware (sometimes called the bare machine).

▪ Assembler - Translates assembly language, a primitive type of programming language,

into machine code, which is a stream of ones and zeroes.

▪ Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) - Interfaces the software (listed above) to the
hardware (listed below), and provides support for programming.

▪ Processor, Memory, and I/O System - These components support the execution of
machine code instructions expressed in terms of the ISA.

▪ Datapath and Control - Provide a convenient abstraction for connecting the processor,
memory, and I/O system and controlling their function efficiently.
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1. Input - Provides data and program information

2. Datapath - Mediates I/O

3. Control - Implements control of calculation and communication or I/O processes

4. Memory - Storage and retrieval of programs or data

5. Output - Result of running program on processor using input

1. Basic Organization of a Computer Brain of Computer System

2. Computer Memory

• Computer memory is the storage space in the computer, where data is to be

processed and instructions required for processing are stored.
• Each location has a unique address in memory.

3. CPU Registers

• CPU Register or processor register is a quickly accessible location available to a

computer's CPU.
• It is fastest among the all types of data storage.

4. Cache Memory

• It is used to hold those parts of data and program which are most frequently required
to execute program.
• It consumes less access time as compared to main memory, so it is faster than main
memory.
• It is the portion of memory made of high speed RAM (SRAM).
• Cache memory has limited capacity to store data.
• Widely used for Memory Caching.
• Works on the “Principle of Locality of Reference”.
5. It acts as a buffer between the CPU and the main memory.
12 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

6. Primary Memory
• Primary memory is computer memory that is accessed directly by the CPU.

7. Random Access Memory (RAM)

• RAM is used to hold the program and data during computation i.e. stores temporary
data.
• Volatile memory: data retains as long as continuous power supply is provided.
• Any cell can be accessed in any order at same speed if address is known.

8. Read Only Memory (ROM)

• Non- volatile in nature.

• Information can simply be read by the user but cannot be modified.
• Generally stores BIOS(Basic Input Output System)
1. PROM – Programmable Read Only Memory
2. EPROM – Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
3. EEPROM – Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory

9. Units to measure computer Memory

10. Secondary Memory

• Communicates indirectly with CPU via main memory. So, It is slower than the main
memory.
• Non- volatile in nature. So, store data permanently.
1. Magnetic Storage Devices: it is sequential access memory.
2. Hard Disk
3. Floppy Disk
4. Magnetic Tape

11. Optical Storage Devices:

• CD-ROM
• CD-Recordable
• CD-Rewritable
• DVD-ROM
1. USB Flash Drive
2. Memory Cards
3. Solid State Drive

12. Processing Devices

13 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

• Processing devices are parts of the computer that are responsible for processing or
converting data into meaningful information.
1. Processor
2. Buses
3. System Clock
13. 1. Processor:

A. The CPU is traditionally referred to as a Processor.

B. The CPU is a computer chip located on the motherboard.
C. Performs processing and control activities performed by different parts of computer.
D. Main electronic circuitry in the computer.
E. Carries out the instructions contained in a computer program by performing
arithmetic, logical, control and input/output operations.
F. Most modern CPUs are contained on a single Integrated Circuit (IC) chip and as
such are called microprocessors.
G. A processor can have two or more CPUs or independent processing units called
“cores” on a single chip and such processor is called a multi-core processor.

14. 2. Buses

• Electrical pathway that transfer data and instructions among different parts of
computer.
• Main memory is directly/indirectly connected to the processor via a bus.
1. Data Bus
2. Address Bus
3. Control Bus

15. Address bus is Unidirectional because the microprocessor is addressing a specific

memory location.
• Data bus is Bidirectional because the Microprocessor can read data from memory or
write data to the memory.

16. 3. Clock

• Used to synchronizing the activities performed by the computer.

17. Software

• Set of computer programs which includes instructions, used for performing a

particular task using hardware.
• Software tells hardware: what to do? How to do?
14 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

18. 1. System Software:

• System software is "Background" software that helps the computer manage its own
internal resources.
• It enables the application software to interact with the computer hardware. Eg.
Operating System, Device Drivers, Utility Software, Translators etc.

2. Application Software: Collection of programs written for a specific application.

19. Operating System

• System software, helps in managing the resources of a computer.

• Primary goal: make computer convenient and efficient to use.
• Eg. MS-DOS, MS-Windows, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS etc.

20. Tasks performed by OS

• Process Management
• Memory Management
• File Management
• Device Management
• Security and user Interface
• Servicing the request by user etc…

21. Types of OS

• Batch Processing OS
• Multiuser OS
• Multi-tasking OS
• Multithreading OS
• Time Sharing OS

22. Device Drivers

• System Software, responsible for proper functioning of devices.

• Each device has a device driver associated with it.
• Whenever computer system needs the use of device, the processor issues general
commands to the driver of device.
• When you buy an operating system, many device drivers are built into the product. In
Windows operating systems, a device driver file usually has a file name suffix of DLL or
EXE
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23. Utility Software

• Used to analyze, configure and maintain the computer system.

• Examples of utility programs are antivirus software, backup software and disk
cleaners, clean up tools, defragmentation tool etc…
•
24. Levels of Programing Languages

1. Low level Language

A. Machine Language

B. Assembly Language

2. High level Language

25. Machine Language

• First Generation Language.

• Instructions are represented by combinations of 0’s and 1’s.

• Programs are executable, can be run directly.

• Requires memorization of binary codes. So, difficult to learn.

• Machine Dependent Codes, not portable.

26. Assembly Language

• Second Generation Language.

• Machine language instructions are replaced with simple pneumonic abbreviations (e.g.
ADD, MUL, DIV etc…).

• Programs needs to translate into machine language.

27. Assembler
16 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

• Translate assembly language statements into machine language codes.

• Types of Assembler

1. Single-pass Assembler

2. Two-pass Assembler

28. High-Level Language

• Consist of set of English like statements, it makes programming easier and less error-
prone.

• Languages are not closely related to internal characteristics of computer.

• Two Categories:

1. Specific Purpose Languages (LISP, Prolog etc…)

2. General Purpose Language(C++, JAVA, C etc…)

29. Files used in c programming Source File (file with .c extension) Object File (file with

.o extension) Executable File (file with .exe extension) Compiler Header File (file with .h
extension) Linker

30. Compiler

• The name compiler is primarily used for programs that translate source code from a
high- level programming language to a lower level language (e.g., assembly language, object
code, or machine code) to create an executable program.

• Compiler resides on a disk or other storage media, when a high-level program is to be

compiled, compiler is loaded into main-memory.

31. Interpreter

• Converted high-level language code into corresponding machine code.

17 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

• Instead of entire program, one statement at a time is translated and executed

immediately.

32. Linker/Link Editor/Binder

• In high-level language built-in library functions need to be linked to the library. This is
done by Linker.

• Sometimes, programs are divided into modules. These modules are combined and
assembled and object module is generated.

• Linker has the responsibility to combine / Link all modules and generate a single
executable file of the source program.

33. Loader

Representing Numbers

Numeric data consists of numbers that can be used in arithmetic operations.

• Digital devices represent numeric data using the binary number system, also called base 2.

• The binary number system only has two digits: 0 and 1.

• No numeral like 2 exists in the system, so the number “two” is represented in binary as 10
(pronounced “one zero”).
18 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

Representing Text

• Character data is composed of letters, symbols, and numerals that are not used in
calculations.
• Examples of character data include your name, address, and hair color.
• Character data is commonly referred to as “text.”
• Digital devices employ several types of codes to represent character data, including
ASCII, Unicode, and their variants.
• ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange, pronounced “ASK ee”)
requires seven bits for each character.
• The ASCII code for an uppercase A is 1000001.
• Extended ASCII is a superset of ASCII that uses eight bits for each character.
• For example, Extended ASCII represents the uppercase letter A as 01000001.
• Using eight bits instead of seven bits allows Extended ASCII to provide codes for 256
characters.
• Unicode (pronounced “YOU ni code”) uses sixteen bits and provides codes or 65,000
characters.
• This is a bonus for representing the alphabets of multiple languages.
• UTF-8 is a variable-length coding scheme that uses seven bits for common ASCII
characters but uses sixteen-bit Unicode as necessary.
19 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

ASCII codes are used for numerals, such as Social Security numbers and phone numbers.

Plain, unformatted text is sometimes called ASCII text and is stored in a so-called text file with a
name ending in .txt.

On Apple devices these files are labeled “Plain Text.” In Windows, these files are labeled “Text
Document”.

ASCII text files contain no formatting.

To create documents with styles and formats, formatting codes have to be embedded in the
text.

Microsoft Word produces formatted text and creates documents in DOCX format.

Apple Pages produces documents in PAGES format.

Adobe Acrobat produces documents in PDF format.

HTML markup language used for Web pages produces documents in HTML format.

Bites and Bytes

• All of the data stored and transmitted by digital devices is encoded as bits.
• Terminology related to bits and bytes is extensively used to describe storage capacity
and network access speed.
• The word bit, an abbreviation for binary digit, can be further abbreviated as a lowercase
b.
• A group of eight bits is called a byte and is usually abbreviated as an uppercase B.
• When reading about digital devices, you’ll frequently encounter references such as 90
kilobits per second, 1.44 megabytes, 2.8 gigahertz, and 2 terabytes.
• Kilo, mega, giga, tera, and similar terms are used to quantify digital data.
20 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

Use bits for data rates, such as Internet connection speeds, and movie download

speeds.

Use bytes for file sizes and storage capacities.

104 KB: Kilobyte (KB or Kbyte) is often used when referring to the size of small computer files.

56 Kbps: Kilobit (Kb or Kbit) can be used for slow data rates, such as a 56 Kbps (kilobits per
second) dial-up connection.

50 Mbps: Megabit (Mb or Mbit) is used for faster data rates, such as a 50 Mbps (megabits per
second) Internet connection.

3.2 MB: Megabyte (MB or MByte) is typically used when referring to the size of files containing
photos and videos.

100 Gbit: Gigabit (Gb or Gbit) is used for really fast network speeds.

•16 GB: Gigabyte (GB or GByte) is commonly used to refer to storage capacity

Explain:

1. How can you describe origins and history of computer?

2. How can you apply Basic Organization of a Computer System?

21 Module 1 | Basic organization of a computer system

IV. Topic Summary:

• In this historical epoch, computers were first developed by the Egyptians, who had the abacus
and shadow clocks. In the preindustrial era, mechanical calculators were developed by Pascal
and Leibniz. During the Industrial Revolution, mechanical computers were envisioned, and parts
of such machines were prototyped, by Charles Babbage.

• Basic Organization of a Computer Brain of Computer System

Computer Memory
o • Computer memory is the storage space in the computer, where data is to be
processed and instructions required for processing are stored.
• Each location has a unique address in memory.

• Representing Numbers
Numeric data consists of numbers that can be used in arithmetic operations.
• Digital devices represent numeric data using the binary number system, also
called base 2.
• The binary number system only has two digits: 0 and 1.

• Bites and Bytes

• All of the data stored and transmitted by digital devices is encoded as bits.
• Terminology related to bits and bytes is extensively used to describe storage
capacity and network access speed.

I. Reference

From the Web:

Mafla, E. (2001). Organization of Computer Systems

https://www.cise.ufl.edu/~mssz/CompOrg/CDAintro.html Retrieved on February 10, 2021.