On The Inside: Central Processing Unit (CPU)
On The Inside: Central Processing Unit (CPU)
On The Inside: Central Processing Unit (CPU)
It has lots of
different parts -- memory, a hard disk, a modem, etc. -- that work together.
"General purpose" means that you can do many different things with a PC. You
can use it to type documents, send e-mail, browse the Web and play games.
On the Inside
Let's take a look at the main components of a typical desktop computer.
• Central processing unit (CPU) - The microprocessor "brain" of the
computer system is called the central processing unit. Everything that a
computer does is overseen by the CPU.
• Memory - This is very fast storage used to hold data. It has to be fast
because it connects directly to the microprocessor. There are several
specific types of memory in a computer:
Random-access memory (RAM) - Used to temporarily store
information that the computer is currently working with
Read-only memory (ROM) - A permanent type of memory storage
used by the computer for important data that does not change
Basic input/output system (BIOS) - A type of ROM that is used by
the computer to establish basic communication when the computer
is first turned on
Caching - The storing of frequently used data in extremely fast
RAM that connects directly to the CPU
• Virtual memory - Space on a hard disk used to temporarily store data and
swap it in and out of RAM as needed Motherboard - This is the main
circuit board that all of the other internal components connect to. The CPU
and memory are usually on the motherboard. Other systems may be
found directly on the motherboard or connected to it through a secondary
connection. For example, a sound card can be built into the motherboard
or connected through PCI.
• Power supply - An electrical transformer regulates the electricity used by
the computer.
• Hard disk - This is large-capacity permanent storage used to hold
information such as programs and documents.
• Operating system - This is the basic software that allows the user to
interface with the computer.
• Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) Controller - This is the primary interface
for the hard drive, CD-ROM and floppy disk drive.
• Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Bus - The most common way to
connect additional components to the computer, PCI uses a series of
slots on the motherboard that PCI cards plug into.
• SCSI - Pronounced "scuzzy," the small computer system interface is a
method of adding additional devices, such as hard drives or scanners, to
the computer.
• AGP - Accelerated Graphics Port is a very high-speed connection used
by the graphics card to interface with the computer.
• Sound card - This is used by the computer to record and play audio by
converting analog sound into digital information and back again.
• Graphics card - This translates image data from the computer into a
format that can be displayed by the monitor
Microprocessor History
A microprocessor - also known as a CPU or Central Processing Unit - is a
complete computation engine that is fabricated on a single chip. The first
microprocessor was the Intel 4004, introduced in 1971. The 4004 was not very
powerful - all it could do was add and subtract, and it could only do that four bits
at a time. But it was amazing that everything was on one chip. Prior to the 4004,
engineers built computers either from collections of chips or from discrete
components (transistors wired one at a time). The 4004 powered one of the first
portable electronic calculators.
The first microprocessor to make it into a home computer was the Intel 8080, a
complete 8-bit computer on one chip introduced in 1974. The first microprocessor
to make a real splash in the market was the Intel 8088, introduced in 1979 and
incorporated into the IBM PC (which first appeared in 1982 or so). If you are
familiar with the PC market and its history, you know that the PC market moved
from the 8088 to the 80286 to the 80386 to the 80486 to the Pentium to the
Pentium-II to the new Pentium-III. All of these microprocessors are made by Intel
and all of them are improvements on the basic design of the 8088. The new
Pentiums-IIIs can execute any piece of code that ran on the original 8088, but the
Pentium-III runs about 3,000 times faster!
Inside a Microprocessor
To understand how a microprocessor works, it is helpful to look inside and learn
about the logic used to create one. In the process you can also learn about
assembly language - the native language of a microprocessor - and many of the
things that engineers can do to boost the speed of a processor.
A microprocessor executes a collection of machine instructions that tell the
processor what to do. Based on the instructions, a microprocessor does three
basic things:
• Using its ALU (Arithmetic/Logic Unit), a microprocessor can perform
mathematical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division. Modern microprocessors contain complete floating point
processors that can perform extremely sophisticated operations on large
floating point numbers.
• A microprocessor can move data from one memory location to another
• A microprocessor can make decisions and jump to a new set of
instructions based on those decisions.
There may be very sophisticated things that a microprocessor does, but those
are its three basic activities. The following diagram shows an extremely simple
microprocessor capable of doing those three things:
This is about as simple as a microprocessor gets. This microprocessor has:
• an address bus (that may be 8, 16 or 32 bits wide) that sends an address
to memory
• a data bus (that may be 8, 16 or 32 bits wide) that can send data to
memory or receive data from memory
• a RD (Read) and WR (Write) line to tell the memory whether it wants to
set or get the addressed location
• a clock line that lets a clock pulse sequence the processor
• A reset line that resets the program counter to zero (or whatever) and
restarts execution.
Let's assume that both the address and data buses are 8 bits wide in this
example.
Here are the components of this simple microprocessor:
• Registers A, B and C are simply latches made out of flip-flops The
address latch is just like registers A, B and C.
• The program counter is a latch with the extra ability to increment by 1
when told to do so, and also to reset to zero when told to do so.
• The ALU could be as simple as an 8-bit adder or it might be able to add,
subtract, multiply and divide 8-bit values. Let's assume the latter here.
• The test register is a special latch that can hold values from comparisons
performed in the ALU. An ALU can normally compare two numbers and
determine if they are equal, if one is greater than the other, etc. The test
register can also normally hold a carry bit from the last stage of the adder.
It stores these values in flip-flops and then the instruction decoder can use
the values to make decisions.
• There are 6 boxes marked "3-State" in the diagram. These are tri-state
buffers. A tri-state buffer can pass a 1, a 0 or it can essentially disconnect
its output (imagine a switch that totally disconnects the output line from the
wire the output is heading toward). A tri-state buffer allows multiple
outputs to connect to a wire, but only one of them to actually drive a 1 or a
0 onto the line.
• The instruction register and instruction decoder are responsible for
controlling all of the other components.
Although they are not shown in this
•
diagram, there would be control lines
from the instruction decoder that
would:
• Tell the A register to latch the value currently on the data bus.
• Tell the B register to latch the value currently on the data bus.
• Tell the C register to latch the value currently on the data bus.
• Tell the program counter register to latch the value currently on the data
bus.
• Tell the address register to latch the value currently on the data bus.
• Tell the instruction register to latch the value currently on the data bus.
• Tell the program counter to increment
• Tell the program counter to reset to zero
• Activate any of the 6 tri-state buffers (6 separate lines)
• Tell the ALU what operation to perform
• Tell the test register to latch the ALUs test bits
• Activate the RD line
• Activate the WR line
When you think about it, it's amazing how many different types of electronic
memory you encounter in daily life. Many of them have become an integral part
of our vocabulary:
• RAM
• ROM
• Cache
• Dynamic RAM
• Static RAM
• Flash memory
• Memory sticks
• Volatile memory
• Virtual memory
• Video memory
• BIOS
• SIMM
• DIMM
• EDO RAM
• RAMBUS
• DIP
You already know that the computer in front of you has memory. What you may
not know is that most of the electronic items you use every day have some form
of memory also. Here are just a few examples of the many items that use
memory:
• Computers
• Cell phones
• Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)
• Game consoles
• Car radios
• VCRs
• TVs
Each of these devices uses different types of memory in different ways!
Fast powerful CPUs need quick and easy access to large amounts of data in
order to maximize their performance. If the CPU cannot get to the data it needs,
it literally stops and waits for it. Modern CPUs running at speeds like 1 gigahertz
can consume massive amounts of data -- potentially billions of bytes per second.
The problem that computer designers face is that memory that can keep up with
a 1 gigahertz CPU is extremely expensive -- much more expensive than anyone
can afford in large quantities. Computer designers have solved the cost problem
by "tiering" memory, using expensive memory in small quantities and then
backing it up with larger quantities of less expensive memory.
The cheapest form of read/write memory in wide use today is the hard disk. Hard
disks provide large quantities of inexpensive, permanent storage. You can buy
hard disk space for pennies per megabyte, but it can take a good bit of time
(approaching a second) to read a megabyte off a hard disk. Because storage
space on a hard disk is so cheap and plentiful, it forms the final stage of a CPUs
memory hierarchy, called virtual memory.
The next level of the hierarchy is RAM. We discuss RAM in detail in another
article in this series, but several points about RAM are important here.
The bit size of a CPU tells you how many bytes of information it can access from
RAM at the same time. For example, a 16-bit CPU can process 2 bytes at a time
(1 byte = 8 bits, so 16 bits divided by 8 = 2), and a 64-bit CPU can process 8
bytes at a time.
Megahertz (MHz) is a measure of a CPU's processing speed, or clock cycle, in
millions per second. So, a 32-bit 800 MHz Pentium III can potentially process 4
bytes simultaneously, 800 million times per second (possibly more based on
pipelining)! The goal of the memory system is to meet those requirements.
A computer's system RAM alone is not fast enough to match the speed of the
CPU. That is why you need a cache (see the next section). However, the faster
RAM is, the better. Most chips today operate with a cycle rate of 50 to 70
nanoseconds. The read/write speed is typically a function of the type of RAM
used, such as DRAM, SDRAM, RAMBUS. We will talk about these various types
of memory later.
System RAM speed is controlled by Bus width and bus speed. Bus width refers
to the number of bits that can be sent to the CPU simultaneously, and bus speed
refers to the number of times a group of bits can be sent each second. A bus
cycle occurs every time data travels from memory to the CPU. For example, a
100 MHz 32-bit bus is theoretically capable of sending 4 bytes (32 bits divided by
8 = 4) of data to the CPU one hundred million times per second while a 66 MHz
16-bit bus can send 2 bytes of data sixty-six million times per second. If you do
the math, you'll find that simply changing the bus width from 16-bit to 32-bit and
the speed from 66 MHz to 100 MHz in our example allows for three times as
much data (400 million bytes versus 132 million bytes) to pass through to the
CPU every second.
In reality, RAM doesn't usually operate at optimum speed; latency changes the
equation radically. Latency refers to the number of clock cycles needed to read a
bit of information. For example, RAM rated at 100 MHz is capable of sending a
bit in .00000001/second but may take .00000005/second to start the read
process for the first bit. To compensate for latency, CPUs uses a special
technique called burst mode.
Burst mode depends on the expectation that data requested by the CPU will be
stored in sequential memory cells. The memory controller anticipates that
whatever the CPU is working on will continue to come from this same series of
memory addresses, so it reads several consecutive bits of data together. This
means that only the first bit is subject to the full effect of latency; reading
successive bits takes significantly less time. The rated burst mode of memory is
normally expressed as four numbers separated by dashes. The first number tells
you the number of clock cycles needed to begin a read operation, the second,
third and fourth numbers tell you how many cycles are needed to read each
consecutive bit in the row, also known as the wordline. For example: 5-1-1-1
tells you that it takes five cycles to read the first bit and one cycle for each bit
after that. Obviously, the lower these numbers are, the better the performance of
the memory.
Burst mode is often used in conjunction with pipelining, another means of
minimizing the effects of latency. Pipelining organizes data retrieval into a sort of
assembly line process. The memory controller simultaneously reads one or more
words from memory, sends the current word or words to the CPU and writes one
or more words to memory cells. Used together, burst mode and pipelining can
dramatically reduce the lag caused by latency.
So why wouldn't you buy the fastest, widest memory you can get? The speed
and width of the memory's bus must match the system's bus. You can't use
memory designed to work at 100 MHz in a 66 MHz system or 32-bit memory with
a 16-bit CPU.
Types of Memory
Memory can be split into two main categories: volatile and nonvolatile. Volatile
memory loses any data as soon as the system is turned off; it requires constant
power to remain viable. Most types of RAM fall into this category.
Nonvolatile memory does not lose its data when the system or device is turned
off. A number of types of memory fall into this category. The most familiar is
ROM, but Flash Memory storage devices such as CompactFlash or
SmartMedia cards are also forms of nonvolatile memory. Other articles in this
series will cover these types of memory.
RAM is considered "random access" because you can access any memory cell
directly if you know the row and column that intersect at that cell. The opposite of
RAM is serial access memory (SAM). SAM stores data as a series of memory
cells that can only be accessed sequentially (like a cassette tape). If the data is
not in the current location, each memory cell is checked until the needed data is
found. SAM works very well for memory buffers, where the data is normally
stored in the order it will be used. A good example is the texture buffer memory
on a video card.
This refresh operation is where dynamic RAM gets its name. Dynamic RAM has
to be dynamically refreshed all of the time or it forgets what it is holding. The
downside of all of this refreshing is that it takes time and slows down the
memory.
Memory cells are etched onto a silicon wafer in an array of columns (bitlines) and rows
(wordlines). The intersection of a bitline and wordline constitutes the address of the
Memory Modules
Memory chips in desktop computers originally used a pin configuration called
dual inline package (DIP). This pin configuration could be soldered into holes
on the computer's motherboard or plugged into a socket that was soldered on the
motherboard. This method worked fine when computers typically operated on a
couple of megabytes or less of RAM, but as the need for memory grew, the
number of chips needing space on the motherboard increased. The solution was
to place the memory chips, along with all of the support components, on a
separate printed circuit board (PCB) that could then be plugged into a special
connector
(memory
bank) on the
motherboard.
Most of these
chips use a
small outline
J-lead (SOJ)
pin
configuration
but quite a
few
From the top, here are SIMM, DIMM and SODIMM memory modules.
manufacturers use the thin small outline package (TSOP) configuration as
well. The key difference between these newer pin types and the original DIP
configuration is that SOJ and TSOP chips are surface-mounted to the PCB. In
other words, the pins are soldered directly to the surface of the board, not
inserted in holes or sockets.
Memory chips are normally only available as part of a card called a module.
You've probably seen memory listed as 8x32 or 4x16. These numbers represent
the number of the chips multiplied by the capacity of each individual chip, which
is measured in megabit (Mb), or one million bits. Take the result and divide it by
eight to get the number of megabytes on that module. For example, 4x32 means
that the module has four 32-megabit chips. Multiply 4 by 32 and you get 128
megabits. Since we know a byte has eight bits, we need to divide our result of
128 by 8. Our result is 16 megabytes!
The type of board and connector used for RAM in desktop computers has
evolved over the past few years. The first types were proprietary, meaning that
different computer manufacturers developed memory boards that would only
work with their specific systems. Then came SIMM, which stands for single in-
line memory module. This memory board used a 30-pin connector and was
about 3.5 inches by .75 inches (about 9 centimeters by 2 centimeters) in size. In
most computers, you had to install SIMMs in pairs of equal capacity and speed.
This is because the width of the bus is more than a single SIMM. For example,
you would install two 8 megabyte (MB) SIMMs to get 16 megabytes total RAM.
Each SIMM could send 8 bits of data at one time while the system bus could
handle 16 bits at a time. Later SIMM boards, slightly larger at 4.25 inches by 1
inch (about 11 centimeters by 2.5 centimeters), used a 72-pin connector for
increased bandwidth and allowed for up to 256MB of RAM.
As processors grew in speed and bandwidth capability, the industry adopted a
new standard in dual in-line memory module (DIMM). With a whopping 168-pin
connector and a size of 5.4 inches by 1 inch (about 14 centimeters by 2.5
centimeters), DIMMs range in capacity from 8MB to 128MB per module and can
be installed singly instead of in pairs. Most PC memory modules operate at 3.3
volts while Mac systems typically use 5 volts. A new standard, Rambus in-line
memory module (RIMM), is comparable in size and pin configuration to DIMM
but uses a special memory bus to greatly increase speed.
Many brands of notebook computers use proprietary memory modules, but
several manufacturers use RAM based on the small outline dual in-line
memory module (SODIMM) configuration. SODIMM cards are small, about 2
inches by 1 inch (5 centimeters by 2.5 centimeters), and have 144 pins. Capacity
ranges from 16MB to 256MB per module. An interesting fact about the Apple
iMac desktop computer is that it uses SODIMMs instead of the traditional DIMMs.
Removing the cover from the drive reveals an extremely simple but very precise
interior:
In this picture you can see:
• The platters, which typically spin at 3,600 or 7,200 RPM when the drive is
operating. These platters are manufactured to amazing tolerances and are
mirror smooth (as you can see in this interesting self-portrait of the
author... No easy way to avoid that, actually!)
• The arm that holds the read/write heads. This arm is controlled by the
mechanism in the upper-left corner, and is able to move the heads from
the hub to the edge of the drive. The arm and its movement mechanism
are extremely light and fast. The arm on a typical hard disk drive can
move from hub to edge and back up to 50 times per second - it is an
amazing thing to watch!
In order to increase the amount of information the drive can store, most hard
disks have multiple platters. This drive has three platters and six read-write
heads:
The mechanism that moves the arms on a hard disk has to be incredibly fast and
precise. It can be constructed using a high-speed linear motor.
Many drives use a "voice coil" approach - the same technique used to move the
cone of a speaker on your stereo moves the arm
Storing the Data
Data is stored on the surface of a platter in sectors and tracks. Tracks are
concentric circles, and sectors are pie-shaped wedges on a track, like this:
The operating system defines our computing experience. It's the first software we
see when we turn on the computer, and the last software we see when the
computer is turned off. It's the software that enables all the programs we use.
The operating system organizes and controls the hardware on our desks and in
our hands, yet most users can't say with any certainty precisely what it is that the
operating system does.
If there is any one component that is absolutely vital to the operation of a
computer, it is the power supply. Without it, a computer is just an inert box full of
plastic and metal. The power supply converts the alternating current (AC) line
from your home to the direct current (DC) needed by the personal computer.
Power Supply
In a personal computer (PC), the power supply is the metal box usually found in
a corner of the case. The power supply is visible from the back of many systems
because it contains the power-cord receptacle and the cooling fan.
This is a power supply removed from its PC case. The small, red
switch at right, above the power-cord connector, is for changing line
voltages in various countries.
The motherboard has been an integral part of most personal computers for
more than 20 years. Think of a motherboard as a scale model of a futuristic city
with many modular plug-in buildings, each using power from a common electrical
system. Multiple-lane highways of various widths transport data between the
buildings. The motherboard is the data and power infrastructure for the entire
computer.
Motherboards (also called mainboards) are actually a carryover from
architecture used for years in mainframe computers. Various circuit cards
performing various functions all plug into many similar sockets on a common
circuit board. Each circuit card performs a unique function in the computer and
gets its power from the socket as well.
Due to improvements in circuitry and packaging, motherboards have essentially
stayed the same size or shrunk (in square inches), while their functionality has
skyrocketed in the past 20 years.
The hard drive and circuit board combination that typify IDE devices
Usually these devices connect to the computer through an Integrated Drive
Electronics (IDE) interface. Essentially, an IDE interface is a standard way for a
storage device to connect to a computer. IDE is actually not the true technical
name for the interface standard. The original name, AT Attachment (ATA),
signified that the interface was initially developed for the IBM AT computer.
Evolution
IDE was created as a way to standardize the use of hard drives in computers.
The basic concept behind IDE is that the hard drive and the controller should be
combined. The controller is a small circuit board with chips that provide guidance
to exactly how the hard drive stores and accesses the data. Most controllers also
include some memory that acts as a buffer to enhance hard drive performance.
Before IDE, controllers and hard drives were separate and often proprietary. In
other words, a controller from one manufacturer might not work with a hard drive
from someone else. The distance between the controller and the hard drive could
result in poor signal quality and affect performance. Obviously, this caused much
frustration for computer users.
The birth of the IDE interface led to combining a controller like this
one with a hard drive.
IBM introduced the AT computer in 1984 with a couple of key innovations.
• The slots in the computer for adding cards used a new version of the ISA
(Industry Standard Architecture) bus. The new bus was capable of
transmitting information 16 bits at a time compared to 8 bits on the original
ISA bus.
• IBM also offered a hard drive for the AT that used a new combined drive
and controller. A ribbon cable from the drive/controller combination ran to
an ISA card to connect to the computer, giving birth to the AT Attachment
(ATA) interface.
In 1986, Compaq introduced IDE drives in their Deskpro 386. This
drive/controller combination was based on the ATA standard developed by IBM.
Before long, other vendors began offering IDE drives. IDE became the term to
cover the entire range of integrated drive/controller devices. Since almost all IDE
drives are ATA-based, the two terms are used interchangeably.
The graphics card plays an essential role in the PC. It takes the digital
information that the computer produces and turns it into something human beings
can see. On most computers, the graphics card converts digital information to
analog information for display on the monitor; on laptops, the data remains digital
because laptop displays are digital.
RADEON™ 64-MB AGP Graphics Card
If you look at the screen of a typical PC very closely, you can see that all of the
different things on the screen are made up of individual dots. These dots are
called pixels, and each pixel has a color. On some screens (for example, on the
original Macintosh), the pixels could have just two colors -- black or white. On
some screens today, a pixel can be one of 256 colors. On many screens, the
pixels are full-color (also known as true color) and have 16.8-million possible
shades. Since the human eye can only discern about 10-million different colors,
16.8-million colors is more than enough for most people.
The goal of a graphics card is to create a set of signals that display the dots on
the computer screen
Mice first broke onto the public stage with the introduction of the Apple Macintosh
in 1984, and since then they have helped to completely redefine the way we use
computers! Every day of your computing life, you reach out for your mouse
whenever you want to move your cursor or activate something. Your mouse
senses your motion and your clicks and sends them to the computer so it can
respond appropriately.
Evolution
It is amazing how simple and effective a mouse is, and it is also amazing how
long it took mice to become a part of everyday life. Given that people naturally
point at things -- usually before they speak -- it is surprising that it took so long for
a good pointing device to develop. Although originally conceived in the 1960's, it
took quite some time for mice to become mainstream.
In the beginning there was no need to point because computers used crude
interfaces like teletype machines or punch cards for data entry. The early text
terminals did nothing more than emulate a teletype (using the screen to replace
paper), so it was many years (well into the 1960s and early 1970s) before arrow
keys were found on most terminals. Full screen editors were the first things to
take real advantage of the cursor keys, and they offered humans the first crude
way to point.
Light pens were used on a variety of machines as a pointing device for many
years, and graphics tablets, joy sticks and various other devices were also
popular in the 1970s. None of these really took off as the pointing device of
choice, however.
When the mouse hit the scene attached to the Mac, it was an immediate
success. There is something about it that is completely natural. Compared to a
graphics tablet, mice are extremely inexpensive and they take up very little desk
space. Mice in the PC world took longer to gain ground, mainly because of a lack
of support in the operating system. Once Windows 3.1 made Graphical User
Interfaces (GUIs) a standard, mice came into the PC world very quickly.
The part of the computer that we come into most contact with is probably the
piece that we think about the least. But the keyboard is an amazing piece of
technology. For instance, did you know that the keyboard on a typical computer
system is actually a computer itself?
Your basic Windows keyboard
At its essence, a keyboard is a series of switches connected to a microprocessor
that monitors the state of each switch and initiates a specific response to a
change in that state.
Types of Keyboards
Keyboards have changed very little in layout since their introduction. In fact, the
most common change has simply been the natural evolution of adding more keys
that provide additional functionality.
The most common keyboards are:
• 101-key Enhanced keyboard
• 104-key Windows keyboard
• 82-key Apple standard keyboard
• 108-key Apple Extended keyboard
Portable computers such as laptops quite often have custom keyboards that
have slightly different key arrangements than a standard keyboard. Also, many
system manufacturers add specialty buttons to the standard layout. A typical
keyboard has four basic types of keys:
• Typing keys
• Numeric keypad
• Function keys
• Control keys
The typing keys are the section of the keyboard that contain the letter keys,
generally laid out in the same style that was common for typewriters. This layout,
known as QWERTY for the first six letters in the layout, was originally designed
to slow down fast typists by making the arrangement of the keys somewhat
awkward! The reason that typewriter manufacturers did this was because the
mechanical arms that imprinted each character on the paper could jam together if
the keys were pressed too rapidly. Because it has been long established as a
standard, and people have become accustomed to the QWERTY configuration,
manufacturers developed keyboards for computers using the same layout, even
though jamming is no longer an issue. Critics of the QWERTY layout have
adopted another layout, Dvorak, that places the most commonly used letters in
the most convenient arrangement.
How It Works
Let's say that you have just added a new PCI-based sound card to your Windows
98 computer. Here's an example of how it would work.
1. You open up your computer's case and plug the sound card into an empty
PCI slot on the motherboard.
This motherboard has four PCI slots.
2. You close the computer's case and power up the computer.
3. The system BIOS initiates the PnP BIOS.
4. The PnP BIOS scans the PCI bus for hardware. It does this by sending
out a signal to any device connected to the bus, asking the device who it
is.
5. The sound card responds by identifying itself. The device ID is sent back
across the bus to the BIOS.
6. The PnP BIOS checks the ESCD to see if the configuration data for the
sound card is already present. Since the sound card was just installed,
there is no existing ESCD record for it.
7. The PnP BIOS assigns IRQ, DMA, memory address and I/O settings to
the sound card and saves the data in the ESCD.
8. Windows 98 boots up. It checks the ESCD and the PCI bus. The operating
system detects that the sound card is a new device and displays a small
window telling you that Windows has found new hardware and is
determining what it is.
9. If it is able to determine what the device is, it displays the name of the
device and attempts to install the driver (the software that enables the
device to communicate with the operating system). You may be asked to
insert a disk with the driver on it or tell Windows where to find the driver
software. If Windows cannot determine what the device is, it provides a
dialog window so that you can specify what type of device it is and load a
driver to run it.
10. Once the driver is installed, the device should be ready for use. Some
devices may require that you restart the computer before you can use
them. In our example, the sound card is immediately ready for use.
11. You want to capture some audio from an external tape deck that you have
plugged into the sound card. You set up the recording software that came
with the sound card and begin to record.
12. The audio comes into the sound card via an external audio connector. The
sound card converts the analog signal to a digital signal.
13. The digital audio data from the sound card is carried across the PCI bus to
the bus controller. The controller determines which device on the PCI
device has priority to send data to the CPU. It also checks to see if data is
going directly to the CPU or to system memory.
14. Since the sound card is in record mode, the bus controller assigns a high
priority to the data coming from it and sends the sound card's data over
the bus bridge to the system bus.
15. The system bus saves the data in system memory. Once the recording is
complete, you can decide whether the data from the sound card is saved
to a hard drive or retained in memory for additional processing.