+

William Stallings
Computer Organization
and Architecture
10th Edition
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NJ. All rights reserved.
+ Chapter 3
A Top-Level View of Computer
Function and Interconnection
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+
Computer Components

■ Contemporary computer designs are based on concepts developed by

John von Neumann at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton

■ Referred to as the von Neumann architecture and is based on three

key concepts:
■ Data and instructions are stored in a single read-write memory
■ The contents of this memory are addressable by location, without regard to
the type of data contained there
■ Execution occurs in a sequential fashion (unless explicitly modified) from
one instruction to the next

■ Hardwired program
■ The result of the process of connecting the various components in the
desired configuration

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+
Hardware
and Software
Approaches

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 Software
• A sequence of codes or instructions
• Part of the hardware interprets each instruction and Software
generates control signals
• Provide a new sequence of codes for each new program
instead of rewiring the hardware

Major components:
• CPU I/O
• Instruction interpreter
Components
• Module of general-purpose arithmetic and logic
functions
• I/O Components
• Input module
+ • Contains basic components for accepting data and
instructions and converting them into an internal form
of signals usable by the system
• Output module
• Means of reporting results

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 Memory address Memory buffer
register (MAR) register (MBR) MEMORY
• Specifies the address • Contains the data to
in memory for the be written into
next read or write memory or receives
the data read from
memory

MAR
I/O address I/O buffer register
register (I/OAR) (I/OBR)
• Specifies a particular • Used for the exchange
I/O device of data between an
+ I/O module and the
CPU

MBR

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© 2016 Pearson Education, Inc., Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.
+
Fetch Cycle
■ At the beginning of each instruction cycle the processor fetches an
instruction from memory

■ The program counter (PC) holds the address of the instruction to be

fetched next

■ The processor increments the PC after each instruction fetch so that

it will fetch the next instruction in sequence

■ The fetched instruction is loaded into the instruction register (IR)

■ The processor interprets the instruction and performs the required

action

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 Action Categories
• Data transferred from • Data transferred to or
processor to memory or from a peripheral device
from memory to by transferring between
processor the processor and an I/O
module

Processor-m Processor-I/
emory O

Data
Control
processing

• An instruction may • The processor may

specify that the sequence perform some arithmetic
of execution be altered or logic operation on
data

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 Table 3.1

Classes of Interrupts

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+
I/O Function
■ I/O module can exchange data directly with the processor

■ Processor can read data from or write data to an I/O module

■ Processor identifies a specific device that is controlled by a particular I/O
module
■ I/O instructions rather than memory referencing instructions

■ In some cases it is desirable to allow I/O exchanges to occur directly

with memory
■ The processor grants to an I/O module the authority to read from or write
to memory so that the I/O memory transfer can occur without tying up the
processor
■ The I/O module issues read or write commands to memory relieving the
processor of responsibility for the exchange
■ This operation is known as direct memory access (DMA)

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 The interconnection structure must support the following
types of transfers:

I/O to or
Memory to Processor I/O to Processor
from
processor to memory processor to I/O
memory

An I/O
module is
allowed to
Processor exchange
Processor
reads an Processor Processor data directly
reads data
instruction or writes a unit sends data to with memory
from an I/O
a unit of data of data to the I/O without going
device via an
from memory device through the
I/O module
memory processor
using direct
memory
access

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 A communication pathway Signals transmitted by any one
connecting two or more devices device are available for reception
• Key characteristic is that it is a shared by all other devices attached to
transmission medium the bus
• If two devices transmit during the same
Bus
time period their signals will overlap
and become garbled Intercon
nection
Typically consists of multiple
communication lines Computer systems contain a
• Each line is capable of transmitting number of different buses that
signals representing binary 1 and provide pathways between
binary 0 components at various levels of
the computer system hierarchy

System bus
• A bus that connects major computer The most common computer
components (processor, memory, I/O)
interconnection structures are
based on the use of one or more
system buses

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 Data Bus
■ Data lines that provide a path for moving data among system modules

■ May consist of 32, 64, 128, or more separate lines

■ The number of lines is referred to as the width of the data bus

■ The number of lines determines how many bits can be transferred at a

time

■ The width of the data bus

is a key factor in
determining overall
system performance

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+ Address Bus Control Bus

■ Used to designate the source or

destination of the data on the data bus ■ Used to control the access and the use of
the data and address lines
■ If the processor wishes to read a
word of data from memory it puts
the address of the desired word on ■ Because the data and address lines are
the address lines shared by all components there must be a
means of controlling their use
■ Width determines the maximum
possible memory capacity of the ■ Control signals transmit both command
system and timing information among system
modules
■ Also used to address I/O ports
■ The higher order bits are used to ■ Timing signals indicate the validity of
select a particular module on the data and address information
bus and the lower order bits select
a memory location or I/O port ■ Command signals specify operations to
within the module be performed

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+
Point-to-Point Interconnect

Principal reason for change was At higher and higher data rates it
the electrical constraints becomes increasingly difficult to
encountered with increasing the perform the synchronization and
frequency of wide synchronous arbitration functions in a timely
buses fashion

A conventional shared bus on

the same chip magnified the
difficulties of increasing bus Has lower latency, higher data
data rate and reducing bus rate, and better scalability
latency to keep up with the
processors

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 +Quick Path Interconnect
QPI
■ Introduced in 2008

■ Multiple direct connections

■ Direct pairwise connections to other components eliminating the

need for arbitration found in shared transmission systems

■ Layered protocol architecture

■ These processor level interconnects use a layered protocol

architecture rather than the simple use of control signals found in
shared bus arrangements

■ Packetized data transfer

■ Data are sent as a sequence of packets each of which includes

control headers and error control codes

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+
QPI Link Layer

■ Flow control function

■ Performs two key functions: ■ Needed to ensure that a sending
flow control and error control QPI entity does not overwhelm a
receiving QPI entity by sending
■ Operate on the level of the data faster than the receiver can
flit (flow control unit) process the data and clear buffers
■ Each flit consists of a 72-bit for more incoming data
message payload and an
8-bit error control code
called a cyclic redundancy
■ Error control function
check (CRC)
■ Detects and recovers from bit
errors, and so isolates higher
layers from experiencing bit
errors

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+
QPI Routing and Protocol Layers

Routing Layer Protocol Layer

■ Packet is defined as the unit of
■ Used to determine the course that a transfer
packet will traverse across the
available system interconnects ■ One key function performed at this
level is a cache coherency protocol
■ Defined by firmware and describe which deals with making sure that
the possible paths that a packet can main memory values held in
follow multiple caches are consistent

■ A typical data packet payload is a

block of data being sent to or from
a cache

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+
Peripheral Component Interconnect
(PCI)
■ A popular high bandwidth, processor independent bus that can function as a
mezzanine or peripheral bus

■ Delivers better system performance for high speed I/O subsystems

■ PCI Special Interest Group (SIG)

■ Created to develop further and maintain the compatibility of the PCI
specifications

■ PCI Express (PCIe)

■ Point-to-point interconnect scheme intended to replace bus-based schemes such as
PCI
■ Key requirement is high capacity to support the needs of higher data rate I/O
devices, such as Gigabit Ethernet
■ Another requirement deals with the need to support time dependent data streams

© 2016 Pearson Education, Inc., Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Inc., Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.
© 2016 Pearson Education, Inc., Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.
© 2016 Pearson Education, Inc., Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.
© 2016 Pearson Education, Inc., Hoboken, NJ. All rights reserved.
+ ■ Receives read and write requests from the
software above the TL and creates request
packets for transmission to a destination via
the link layer

PCIe ■ Most transactions use a split transaction

technique
Transaction Layer (TL) ■ A request packet is sent out by a source
PCIe device which then waits for a
response called a completion packet

■ TL messages and some write transactions

are posted transactions (meaning that no
response is expected)

■ TL packet format supports 32-bit memory

addressing and extended 64-bit memory
addressing

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+
The TL supports four address spaces:

■ Memory ■ I/O
■ The memory space includes system
■ This address space is used for
main memory and PCIe I/O
devices legacy PCI devices, with
reserved address ranges used to
■ Certain ranges of memory
addresses map into I/O devices address legacy I/O devices

■ Configuration ■ Message
■ This address space enables the ■ This address space is for control
TL to read/write configuration signals related to interrupts,
registers associated with I/O error handling, and power
devices management

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 Table 3.2
PCIe TLP Transaction Types

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+ Summary A Top-Level View of
Computer Function and
Interconnection
Chapter 3
■ Point-to-point interconnect
■ QPI physical layer
■ Computer components
■ QPI link layer
■ Computer function
■ QPI routing layer
■ Instruction fetch and execute
■ QPI protocol layer
■ Interrupts
■ I/O function ■ PCI express
■ Interconnection structures ■ PCI physical and logical
■ Bus interconnection architecture
■ PCIe physical layer
■ PCIe transaction layer
■ PCIe data link layer
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