Lecture 3

Lecture 3:
PROCESSOR AND
MEMORY
Prepared by-
Ishrat Nahar Farhana
Lecturer
Department of CSIT
Southern University Bangladesh
Learning Objectives
 Internal structure of processor
 Memory structure
 Determining the speed of a processor
 Different types of processors available
 Different types of memory available
 Several other terms related to the processor and
Basic Processor & Memory Architecture of a
Computer System
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
 The Brain of a computer system
 Performs all major calculations and comparisons
 Activates and controls the operations of other units of a
computer system
 Two basic components are
 Control Unit (CU)
 Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
 No other single component of a computer determines its

overall performance as much as the CPU
Control Unit & Arithmetic Logic Unit
Control Unit (CU):
 One of the two basic components of CPU
 Acts as the central nervous system of a computer system
 Selects and interprets program instructions, and coordinates execution
 Has some special purpose registers and a decoder to perform these activities
Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) :
 One of the two basic components of CPU.
 Actual execution of instructions takes place in ALU
 Has some special purpose registers
 Has necessary circuitry to carry out all the arithmetic and logic operations
included in the CPU instruction set
Instrucotn
iSet
 CPU has built-in ability to execute a particular set of machine

instructions, called its instruction set
 Most CPUs have 200 or more instructions (such as add, subtract,
compare, etc.) in their instruction set
 CPUs made by different manufacturers have different instruction sets
 Manufacturers tend to group their CPUs into “families” having similar
instruction sets
 New CPU whose instruction set includes instruction set of its
predecessor CPU is said to be backward compatible with its
predecessor
Registers
 Special memory units, called registers, are used to hold information on a
temporary basis as the instructions are interpreted and executed by the CPU
 Registers are part of the CPU (not main memory) of a computer
 The length of a register, sometimes called its word size, equals the number
of bits it can store
 With all other parameters being the same, a CPU with 32-bit registers can
process data twice larger than one with 16-bit registers
Functions of Commonly Used
Registers
Processor Speed
 Computer has a built-in system clock that emits millions of regularly spaced
electric pulses per second (known as clock cycles)
 It takes one cycle to perform a basic operation, such as moving a byte of
data from one memory location to another
 Normally, several clock cycles are required to fetch, decode, and execute a
single program instruction
 Hence, shorter the clock cycle, faster the processor
 Clock speed (number of clock cycles per second) is measured in Megahertz
(106 cycles/sec) or Gigahertz (109 cycles/sec)
Types of Processor
Types of Processor
Types of Processor
Main Memory
 Every computer has a temporary storage built into the computer hardware
 It stores instructions and data of a program mainly when the program is
being executed by the CPU.
 This temporary storage is known as main memory, primary storage, or
simply memory
 Physically, it consists of some chips either on the motherboard or on a small
circuit board attached to the motherboard of a computer
 It has random access property.
 It is volatile.
Storage Evaluation Criteria
Main Memory Organization
 Machines having smaller word-length are slower in operation than
machines having larger word-length
 A write to a memory location is destructive to its previous contents
 A read from a memory location is non-destructive to its previous contents
 Memory capacity of a computer is equal to the number of bytes that can
be stored in its primary storage
 Its units are:
 Kilobytes (KB):1024 (210) bytes
 Megabytes (MB):1,048,576 (220) bytes
 Gigabytes (GB):1,073,741824 (230) bytes
Random Access Memory (RAM)
 Primary storage of a computer is often referred to as RAM because
of its random access capability
 RAM chips are volatile memory
 A computer’s motherboard is designed in a manner that the memory
capacity can be enhanced by adding more memory chips
 The additional RAM chips, which plug into special sockets on the
motherboard, are known as single-in-line memory modules
(SIMMs)
Read Only Memory (ROM)
 ROM a non-volatile memory chip
 Data stored in a ROM can only be read and use –they cannot be
changed
 ROMs are mainly used to store programs and data, which do not change
and are frequently used. For example, system boot program
Types of ROMs
Types of ROMs
Cache Memory
 It is commonly used for minimizing the memory-processor speed
mismatch.
 It is an extremely fast, small memory between CPU and main memory
whose access time is closer to the processing speed of the CPU.
 It is used to temporarily store very active data and instructions during
processing.
Thanks

Lecture 3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lecture 3

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lecture 3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lecture 3:

 No other single component of a computer determines its

 CPU has built-in ability to execute a particular set of machine

You might also like