Unit 1

Basic computer organization and design

Operational concepts, Instruction codes, Computer
Registers, Computer Instructions, Memory
locations and addresses, Instruction cycle, Timing and
control, Bus organization
Von Neumann Architecture
 Basic Operational Concepts
• The primary function of a computer system is to execute a program,
sequence of instructions. These instructions are stored in computer
memory.
• These instructions are executed to process data which are already loaded
in the computer memory through some input devices.
• After processing the data, the result is either stored in the memory for
further reference, or it is sent to the outside world through some output
port.
• To perform the execution of an instruction, in addition to the arithmetic
logic unit, and control unit, the processor contains a number of registers
used for temporary storage of data and some special function registers
• The special function registers include program counter (PC),
instruction register (IR), memory address register (MAR) and memory
and memory data register (MDR).
• The Program counter is one of the most critical registers in CPU.
• The Program counter monitors the execution of instructions. It keeps
track on which instruction is being executed and what the next
instruction will be.
• The instruction register IR is used to hold the instruction that is
currently being executed
• The contents of IR are available to the control unit, which generate the
timing signals that control, the various processing elements involved in
executing the instruction.
• The two registers MAR and MDR are used to handle the data transfer
between the main memory and the processor.
• The MAR holds the address of the main memory to or from which data is
to be transferred.
• The MDR contains the data to be written into or read from the addressed
word of the main memory.
• Whenever the processor is asked to communicate with devices, we say that
the processor is servicing the devices. The processor can service these
devices in one of the two ways.
• One way is to use the polling routine, and the other way is to use an
interrupt.
• Polling enables the processor software to check each of the input and
output devices frequently. During this check, the processor tests to
see if any devices need servicing or not.
• Interrupt method provides an external asynchronous input that
informs the processor that it should complete whatever instruction
that is currently being executed and fetch a new routine that will
service the requesting device
 Instruction codes
• Computer instructions are a set of machine language instructions that
a particular processor understands and executes.
• A computer performs tasks on the basis of the instruction provided.
• An instruction comprises of groups called fields. These fields include:
1. The Operation code (Opcode) field which specifies the operation to
be performed.
2. The Address field which contains the location of the operand, i.e.,
register or memory location.
3. The Mode field which specifies how the operand will be located.
 Instruction Code Formats
• A basic computer has three instruction code formats
1. Memory - reference instruction
2. Register - reference instruction
3. Input-Output instruction
 1.Memory - reference instruction
• In Memory-reference instruction,
• First 12 bits ( 0 to 11 bits) of memory is used to specify an address
• Next 3 bits (12 to 14) bit to specify the opode (from 000 to 110)
• Last 1 bit (15th bit ) addressing mode 'I‘ ( can be either 0(direct) or
1(in-direct) )
 2. Register - reference instruction
• It specifies an operation on the Accumulator register
• Operand from memory is not needed
• First 12 bits are used to represent operation to be executed
• 12th to 14th bits for the opcode representation (111 always)
• 15th bit is always 0
 3. Input-Output instruction
• I/O instructions are needed for transferring information to and from
AC register, for checking the flag bits, & controlling the interrupt
facility
• First 12 bits are used to specify the type of I/O operation performed
• Identified by the opcode 111(12th to 14th)
• and a 1 in the 15th bit, which is always 1
 Computer Registers
• Registers are a type of computer memory used to quickly accept,
store, and transfer data and instructions that are being used
immediately by the CPU. The registers used by the CPU are often
termed as Processor registers.
• A processor register may hold an instruction, a storage address, or
any data (such as bit sequence or individual characters).
• The computer needs processor registers for manipulating data and a
register for holding a memory address. The register holding the
memory location is used to calculate the address of the next
instruction after the execution of the current instruction is completed
Register and Memory configuration for a basic computer.
• The Memory unit has a capacity of 4096 words, and each word
contains 16 bits.
• The Data Register (DR) contains 16 bits which hold the operand read
from the memory location.
• The Memory Address Register (MAR) contains 12 bits which hold the
address for the memory location.
• The Program Counter (PC) also contains 12 bits which hold the
address of the next instruction to be read from memory after the
current instruction is executed.
• The Accumulator (AC) register is a general purpose processing
register.
• The instruction read from memory is placed in the Instruction register
(IR).
• The Temporary Register (TR) is used for holding the temporary data
during the processing.
• The Input Registers (IR) holds the input characters given by the user.
• The Output Registers (OR) holds the output after processing the input
data.
Stored program organization
• The simplest way to organize a computer is to have one processor
register and an instruction code format with two parts.
• The first part specifies the operation to be performed and the
second specifies an address.
• The memory address tells the control where to find an operand in
memory.
 Memory locations and addresses

• Memory consists of many millions of storage cells (flip-flops).

• Each cell can store a bit of information i.e. 0 or 1 (Figure).
• Each group of n bits is referred to as a word of information, and n is
called the word length.
• The word length can vary from 8 to 64 bits.
• A unit of 8 bits is called a byte.
• Accessing the memory to store or retrieve a single item of
information (word) requires distinct addresses for each item location.
(It is customary to use numbers from 0 through 2ˆn-1 as the addresses
of successive-locations in the memory).
• If 2ˆn = no. of addressable locations;
then 2ˆn addresses constitute the address-space of the computer.
For example, a 24-bit address generates an address-space of
2ˆ24 locations (16 MB)
 Instruction Cycle
• A program residing in the memory unit of a computer consists of a
sequence of instructions. These instructions are executed by the
processor by going through a cycle for each instruction.
• In a basic computer, each instruction cycle consists of the following
phases:
1. Fetch instruction from memory.
2. Decode the instruction.
3. Read the effective address from memory.
4. Execute the instruction.
 Fetch & Decode
• Initially PC is loaded with the address of the first instruction in the
program
• The micro operations during fetch & decode are;
• T0: AR<-PC
• T1: IR<-M[AR], PC->PC+1
• T2: DO,D1,D2…D7 <- Decode IR(12-14), AR<-IR (0-11), I<-IR(15)
• After decoding the instruction, the next step is to determine the type
of the instruction @ timing signal T3
1.Memory reference
• If D7=0 and I=1, the indirect
• else if D7=0 and I=0, it is direct
2. Register reference OR I/O
• If D7=1 and I=0 , Register
• If D7=1 and I=1, I/O
• The micro operations during T3
• D7’ I T3 :- AR<- M[AR] (memory reference & indirect)
• D7’ I’ T3 :- Nothing (memory reference & direct)
• D7 I’ T3 :- Execute register reference
• D7 I T3 :- Execute I/O instruction
 Types of Instructions / Instruction
Classification
• Most computer instructions can be classified into three categories.
1. Data Transfer
2. Data manipulation
3. Program control
 Data transfer instructions
• Data transfer instructions move data from one place in the
computer to another without changing the data.
• Typical transfers are between memory and processor registers,
between processor registers and input and output registers, and
among the processor registers themselves
 Data manipulation instructions
• Data manipulation instructions perform operations on data and
provide the computational capabilities for the computer.
• The data manipulation instructions in a typical computer usually
divided into three basic types as follows.
1. Arithmetic instructions.
2. Logical and bit manipulation instructions.
3. Shift instructions.
 Program control instructions
• Program Control Instructions are the machine code that are used by
machine or in assembly language by user to command the processor
act accordingly.
Timing and Control
 Bus organization
•
Bus is a subsystem that is used to transfer data and other information
between devices.
• Means various devices in computer like(Memory, CPU, I/O and Other)
are communicate with each other through buses.
• In general, a bus is said to be as the communication pathway
connecting two or more devices.
• A key characteristics of a bus is that it is a shared transmission
medium, as multiple devices are attached to a bus.
• Typically, a bus consists of multiple communication Pathways or lines
which are either in the form of wires or metal lines etched in a card or
board(Printed Circuit Board).
• Each line is capable of transmitting binary 1 and binary 0.
• Computer System Contains a number of different buses that provide
pathways between components at various levels of computer system
hierarchy.
• But before discussing them i.e., types of buses , i will first describe
here one of the most important aspect of buses which is described
below-
1. Address bus: Address bus is used to carry the address. It is
unidirectional bus. The address is sent to from CPU to memory and I/O
port and hence unidirectional. It consists of 16, 20, 24 or more parallel
signal lines.
2. Data bus: Data bus is used to carry or transfer data to and from
memory and I/O ports. They are bidirectional. The processor can read
on data lines from memory and I/O port and as well as it can write data
to memory. It consists of 8, 16, 32 or more parallel signal lines.
3. Control bus: Control bus is used to carry control signals in order to
regulate the control activities. They are bidirectional. The CPU sends
control signals on the control bus to enable the outputs of addressed
memory devices or port devices.
Some of the control signals are: MEMR (memory read), MEMW
(memory write), IOR (I/O read), IOW (I/O write), BR (bus request), BG
(bus grant), INTR (interrupt request), INTA (interrupt acknowledge), RST
(reset), RDY (ready), HLD (hold), HLDA (hold acknowledge),