Computer Evolution and

Performance
Chapter 2
 Key points (1)
• Evolution of computers:
– Increasing processor speed
– Decreasing component size
– Increasing memory size
– Increasing I/O capacity and speed

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 Key points (2)
• Great increase in processor speed:
– Smaller microprocessor components
– Reduced distance between components
– Organization of the processor
• Pipelining and parallel execution techniques
• The goal: To keep the processor busy as much
of the time as possible

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 Key points (3)
• To balance the performance of the
various elements
– E.g. Processor vs memory

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 A brief history of computers (1)
The first generation: Vacuum tubes
ENIAC
• Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer
• Eckert and Mauchly - University of
Pennsylvania
• Trajectory tables for weapons
• Started 1943 - Finished 1946
• Too late for war effort
• Used until 1955
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 A brief history of computers (2)
ENIAC
• Decimal (not binary)
• 20 accumulators of 10 digits
• Programmed manually by switches and
plugging and unplugging cables.
• 18,000 vacuum tubes
• 30 tons
• 15,000 square feet
• 140 kW power consumption
• 5,000 additions per second

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 A brief history of computers (3)
The von Neumann Machine
• Stored Program concept
• Mathematician Jhon von Neumann / Developed by Alan Turing at
the same time.
• Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies
• IAS
– Main memory storing programs and data
– ALU operating on binary data
– Control unit interpreting instructions from memory and executing
– Input and output equipment operated by control unit

• Completed 1952

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 A brief history of computers (4)
Structure of von
Neumann
machine

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 A brief history of computers (5)
IAS – details
• 1000 x 40 bit words
– Binary number
– 2 x 20 bit instructions
• Set of registers (storage in CPU)
– Memory Buffer Register (MBR)
– Memory Address Register (MAR)
– Instruction Register (IR)
– Instruction Buffer Register (IBR)
– Program Counter (PC)
– Accumulator (AC)
– Multiplier Quotient (MQ)

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 A brief history of computers (6)
IAS – details
• 21 instructions:
– Data transfer
– Unconditional branch
– Conditional branch
– Arithmetic
– Address modify

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 A brief history of computers (7)
Commercial Computers
• 1947 - Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation
• UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer)
• US Bureau of Census 1950 calculations
• Became part of Sperry-Rand Corporation
• Late 1950s - UNIVAC II
– Faster
– More memory

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 A brief history of computers (8)
IBM
• Punched-card processing equipment
• 1953 - the 701
– IBM’s first stored program computer
– Scientific calculations
• 1955 - the 702
– Business applications
• Lead to 700/7000 series

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 A brief history of computers (9)
The second generation: Transistors
• Replaced vacuum tubes
• Smaller
• Cheaper
• Less heat dissipation
• Solid State device
• Made from Silicon (Sand)
• Invented 1947 at Bell Labs
• NCR & RCA produced small transistor machines
• IBM 7000 – data channels

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 A brief history of computers (10)

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 A brief history of computers (11)
The third generation: Integrated Circuits

• Microelectronics

– Literally - “small electronics”

– A computer is made up of gates, memory cells and
interconnections
– These can be manufactured on a semiconductor
– e.g. silicon wafer

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 A brief history of computers (12)

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 A brief history of computers (13)
Moore’s Law
• Increased density of components on chip
• Gordon Moore - cofounder of Intel
– Number of transistors on a chip will double every year
– Since 1970’s development has slowed a little
• Number of transistors doubles every 18 months
– Cost of a chip has remained almost unchanged
– Higher packing density means shorter electrical paths, giving
higher performance
– Smaller size gives increased flexibility
– Reduced power and cooling requirements
– Fewer interconnections increases reliability

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 A brief history of computers (14)

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 A brief history of computers (15)
• IBM 360 series
– 1964
– Replaced (& not compatible with) 7000 series
– First planned “family” of computers
• Similar or identical instruction sets
• Similar or identical O/S
• Increasing speed
• Increasing number of I/O ports (i.e. more terminals)
• Increased memory size
• Increased cost
– Multiplexed switch structure

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 A brief history of computers (16)
• DEC PDP-8
– 1964
– First minicomputer
– Did not need air conditioned room
– Small enough to sit on a lab bench
– $16,000
• $100k+ for IBM 360
– Embedded applications & OEM (original equipment
manufactures)
– BUS STRUCTURE

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 A brief history of computers (17)

• DEC - PDP-8 Bus Structure

Main Memory I/O I/O
Console CPU Module Module
Controller

OMNIBUS

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 A brief history of computers (18)
Later Generations

Semiconductor Memory
• 1970
• Fairchild
• Size of a single core
– i.e. 1 bit of magnetic core storage
• Holds 256 bits
• Non-destructive read
• Much faster than core
• Capacity approximately doubles each year

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 A brief history of computers (19)
INTEL
• 1971 - 4004
– First microprocessor
– All CPU components on a single chip
– 4 bit
• Followed in 1972 by 8008
– 8 bit
– Both designed for specific applications
• 1974 - 8080
– Intel’s first general purpose microprocessor

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 Designing for performance (1)
Speeding it up
• Pipelining
• On board cache
• On board L1 & L2 cache
• Branch prediction
• Data flow analysis
• Speculative execution

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 Designing for performance (2)
Performance Mismatch
• Processor speed increased
• Memory capacity increased
• Memory speed lags behind processor
speed

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 Designing for performance (3)

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 Designing for performance (4)
Solutions
– Increase number of bits retrieved at one time
• Make DRAM “wider” rather than “deeper”
– Change DRAM interface
• Cache
– Reduce frequency of memory access
• More complex cache and cache on chip
– Increase interconnection bandwidth
• High speed buses
• Hierarchy of buses

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 Pentium Evolution (1)
• 8080
– first general purpose microprocessor
– 8 bit data path
– Used in first personal computer – Altair
• 8086
– much more powerful
– 16 bit
– instruction cache, prefetch few instructions
– 8088 (8 bit external bus) used in first IBM PC
• 80286
– 16 Mbyte memory addressable
• 80386
– 32 bit
– Support for multitasking

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 Pentium Evolution (2)
• 80486
– sophisticated powerful cache and instruction pipelining
– built in maths co-processor
• Pentium
– Superscalar
– Multiple instructions executed in parallel
• Pentium Pro
– Increased superscalar organization
– Aggressive register renaming
– branch prediction
– data flow analysis
– speculative execution

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 Pentium Evolution (3)
• Pentium II
– MMX technology
– graphics, video & audio processing
• Pentium III
– Additional floating point instructions for 3D graphics
• Pentium 4
– Note Arabic rather than Roman numerals
– Further floating point and multimedia enhancements
• Itanium
– 64 bit

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 PowerPC Evolution
• The 801 minicomputer of IBM: first RISC system
• 68000 series: Alliance between IBM and Motorola -> Apple Macintosh
• 601
– First PowerPC processor to be bought
– 32 bit
• 603
– For portable computers
– Lower cost
• 604
– Desktop computers and low-end servers
– Superscalar design techniques
• 620
– High-end servers
– 64-bit architecture, registers and data paths
• 740/750
– G3 processor
– Two levels of cache
• G4
– Parallelism

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 CISC vs RISC
• CISC: Complex Intruction Set Computer
» P4

• RISC: Reduced Instruction Set Computer

» G4

• Read: 2.1 of textbook

• Homework will be posted on web on
Sunday 23th at night

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