CS/COE0447

Computer Organization &

Course Intro
and
CH 1.1-1.3

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 Course Information
• Welcome to CS/COE0447!
• Professor
– Dr. Jan Wiebe
• Teaching Assistant
– Jose Baiocchi

• Course web page, including syllabus, lectures notes,

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 Computer Systems
• “Desktop computers”
– E.g. PCs, MACs, …
– Includes Notebooks

• “Servers”
– Web servers
– File and compute servers
– Supercomputers

• “Embedded computers”
– Usually NOT directly observable
– Very wide range of applications

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Desktop Computers

4
Servers

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Embedded Computers

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 Computer Organization
Study this part in CS1541!

We study this part in this course!

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 In CS/COE 447
• We will study
– Computer architecture
• MIPS architecture
– Concepts of assembler, linker, compiler
– Computer arithmetic
• Signed and unsigned binary numbers
• Floating point format
• Operations (add/div/…)
– Logic design
– Basic processor performance analysis
– Processor organization
• Datapath
• Control

• We will do
– Assembly language programming (in MIPS)

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 Computer Architecture?
• Computer systems
– Underlying hardware
– Software running on it

• Computer architecture
– The hardware/software interface seen by the user
– Instruction set architecture (ISA)

• Processor microarchitecture
– Implementation of a given architecture
– May or may not be visible to the user

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Layered Approach in Computer Design

Computer Architecture or
Instruction Set Architecture

Architecture

Microarchitecture

Logic gates

Transistors

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 Machine Code Example
void swap(int v[], int k)
{
swap: int temp;
muli $t0, $a0, 4 temp = v[k];
il er v[k] = v[k+1];
add $t0, $a1, $t0
omp
lw $t1, 0($t0) c v[k+1] = temp;
lw $t2, 4($t0) }
sw $t2, 0($t0)
sw $t1, 4($t0) as 00000000101000010…
sem
jr $ra ble 00000000000110000…
r
10001100011000100…
10001100111100100…
10101100111100100…
10101100011000100…
00000011111000000…

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 Levels of Program Code
• High-level language
– Level of abstraction closer
to problem domain
– Provides for productivity
and portability
• Assembly language
– Textual representation of
instructions
• Hardware representation
– Binary digits (bits)
– Encoded instructions and
data

Chapter 1 — Computer
Abstractions and
 Components of ISA
• In most cases, a “programmer’s reference
manual” (PRM) will disclose the ISA of a
processor
• To understand an ISA, find in PRM
– Data types the processor supports
– Supported instructions and their definitions
– Registers (general-purpose & special purpose)
– Processor modes
– Exception mechanism

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 Inside a PC
• Integrated Circuits (ICs)
– CPU (Central Processing Unit), companion chipset, memory,
peripheral I/O chip (e.g., USB, IDE, IEEE1394, …)
• Printed Circuit (PC) boards (next slide)
– Substrate for ICs and interconnection
– Distribution of clock, power supply
– Heat dissipation
• Hard disk, CD-RW DVD-RW, (floppy disk)
• Power supply
• Chassis
– Holds boards, power supply, and provides physical interface for
user and other systems
• Connectors and cables

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Closeup photo of one side of a motherboard PCB, showing conductive
traces and solder points for through-hole components on the opposite side.
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Technology Trend (Processor Complexity)

2x transistors/chip every 1.5 years!

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 Moore’s Law
• The term Moore's Law has been coined by Carver Mead around
1970.[4] Moore's original statement can be found in his publication
"Cramming more components onto integrated circuits", Electronics
Magazine 19 April 1965:
• “The complexity for minimum component costs has increased at a
rate of roughly a factor of two per year ... Certainly over the short
term this rate can be expected to continue, if not to increase. Over
the longer term, the rate of increase is a bit more uncertain,
although there is no reason to believe it will not remain nearly
constant for at least 10 years. That means by 1975, the number of
components per integrated circuit for minimum cost will be 65,000. I
believe that such a large circuit can be built on a single wafer.[1]

• Astounding that it has held for so long!!!

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Memory Capacity Trend (DRAM)
size

1000000000

100000000

10000000

1000000
Bits

100000

10000

1000
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Year

1.4x/year or 2x every 2 years

A typical SDRAM “module”

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 Storage
• Secondary storage
• Non-volatile
• Stores programs, user-saved data, etc.
• In PC/server domain, magnetic disk (hard-
disk) is usually used
• In embedded computers, “flash” memory
or “ROM” is usually employed

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 Storage, cont’d

USB Flash card

3.5-inch floppy disk

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Storage, cont’d

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 Computer Networks
• Local Area Network (LAN)
– Within limited distance (e.g., in a building)
– Mostly based on Ethernet
– 10Mbps, 100Mbps, 1Gbps, 10Gbps, …
• Wide Area Network
– Connecting networks far apart

• Proliferation of wireless LAN (IEEE802.11)

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