Computing in Architecture Flashcards
In computer engineering, it is the conceptual design and fundamental operational structure of a computer system
Computer Architecture
A blueprint and functional description of requirements and design implementations for the various parts of a computer, focusing largely on the way by which the CPU performs internally and accesses addresses in memory.
Computer Architecture
The science and art of selecting and interconnecting hardware components to create computers that meet functional, performance and cost goals.
Computer Architecture
3 main sub-categories of Computer architecture
- Instruction Set Architecture
- Micro-architecture
- System Design
the abstract image of a computing system that is seen by a machine language programmer, including the instruction set, memory address modes, processor registers, and address and data formats
Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)
also known as computer organization
Micro-architecture
a lower level, more concrete and detailed, description of the system that involves how the constituent parts of the system are interconnected and how they interoperate in order to implement ISA
Micro-architecture
includes all of the other hardware components within a computing system
System Design
a process wherein the actual device needs to be designed into hardware
Implementation
3 pieces of implementation
- Logic Implementation
- Circuit Implementation
- Physical Implementation
design of blocks defined in the micro-architecture at the register-transfer and gate levels
Logic Implementation
Transistor-level design of basic elements as well as of some larger blocks that may be implemented at this level, or even at the physical level, for performance reasons.
Circuit Implementation
physical circuits are drawn out, the different circuit components are placed in a chip floor-plan or on a board and the wires connecting them are routed
Physical Implementation
For CPUs, the entire implementation process if often called what?
CPU Design
NUMA
Non-Uniform Memory Access
The term “architecture” in computer literature can be traced to whose work?
Lyle R. Johnson
Frederick P. Brooks
The art of determining the needs of the user of a structure and then designing to meet those needs as effectively as possible within economic and technological constraints.
Computer Architecture
architectural layers that are more abstract than micro-architecture
Macro-architecture
macro-architecture
Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)
a smart assembler may convert an abstract assembly language common to a group of machines into slightly different machine language for different implementations
Assembly ISA
higher level language tools such as compilers may define a consistent interface or contract to programmers using them, abstracting differences between underlying ISA, UISA, and microarchitectures
Programmer Visible Micro-architecture
a family of machines with different hardware level microarchitectures may share common microcode architecture
Microcode Instruction Set Architecture (UISA)
the set of functions that a microprocessor is expected to provide from the point of view of a hardware platform
Pin Architecture
often described in terms of clock speed (MHz, GHz)
computer performance
two main types of speed
Latency
Throughput
the time between the start of a process and its completion
Latency
the amount of work done per unit time
Throughput
the guaranteed maximum response time of the system to an electronic event
Interrupt latency
another design criterion that factors in the design of modern computers
Power consumption
holds the data that the computer will process and the instructions that indicate what processing is to be done
Storage/Memory
types of storage devices
Registers
Main Memory
Secondary/Auxiliary Storage
the fastest and most costly storage units
Registers
normally contained within the processing unit
Registers
holds the data to be processed and the instructions that specify what processing is to be done
Main memory
two prevalent techniques for increasing effective speed
Interleaving and Cachering
a popular way to increase the effective size
Virtual Memory
involves the use of two or more independent memory systems, combined in a way that makes them appear to be a single, faster system.
Interleaving
a small, fast memory system contains the most frequently used words from a slower, larger main memory
Cacheing
a technique whereby the programmer is given the illusion of a very large main memory, when in fact it has only a modest size
virtual memory
sometime called secondary storage
auxiliary memory
the slowest, lowest-cost, and highest-capacity computer storage area
auxiliary memory
two basic types of secondary storage
sequential and direct-access
access secondary storage devices, f which magnetic tape is the most common, permit data to be accessed in a linear sequence
Sequential
one of whose data may be accessed in any order
Direct-access
one of the most important aspects of modern computer memory designs
memory mapping
the method by which the computer translates between the computer’s logical and physical address spaces
memory mapping
another strategy for mapping
Paging
this technique involves dividing both logical and physical address spaces into equal-sized blocks call pages
Paging
consists of a control unit, which directs the operation of the system, and an arithmetic and logic unit, which performs computational operations
Processor
two common approaches for connecting peripherals and secondary storage devices to the rest of the computer
Channel
Bus
essentially a wire or group of wires between a peripheral device and a memory device
Channel
allows several devices to be connected to the same wire
Multiplexed channel
a form of multiplexed channel that can be shared by a large number of devices
bus
a technique by which the computer signals the device to transmit a block of data, and the data are transmitted directly to memory, without the processor needing to wait
Direct memory access
a form of signal by which a peripheral device notifies a processor that it has completed transmitting data
Interrupts
