Computers Are Your Future

Tenth Edition

Lecture 2 – Inside the System Unit

provided by
Sameer Akram Mirza

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 What You Will Learn

 How computers represent data?

 Measurements used to describe data transfer rates and
data storage capacity.
 List the components found inside the system unit and
explain their use.
 List the components found on the computer’s motherboard
and explain their role in the functioning of the computer’s
systems.
 Discuss (in general terms) how a CPU processes data.

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 What You Will Learn

 Factors that determine a microprocessor’s performance.

 Various types of memory found in a computer system and
explain the purpose of each.
 Various physical connectors on the exterior of the system
unit and explain their use.

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Inside the System Unit

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Inside the System Unit - Motherboard

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 How Computers represent Data

 Computers work with  A bit is either “on” or “off,”

binary numbers, which a 0 or a 1.
include only 0s and 1s.
 Eight bits, a byte, signify a
 The smallest piece of data single unit of storage.
that a computer can work
with is known as a bit.

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 Measurements used for
Data Transfer Rate & Storage Capacity

 The common measurement of a modem’s data transfer rate

is in bits per second, such as gigabits per second (Gbps).
 The common measurement of data storage is in bytes, such
as gigabytes (GB).

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Storage Capacity Units
Data Transfer Rate and Memory
Capacity Units

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 How Computers represent Data

 Because even small numbers require many digits when

converted to binary, computers convert binary numbers into
hexadecimal (hex) numbers, which use the numbers 0
through 9, followed by letters A through F.

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 How Computers represent Data

 Floating-point notation has no fixed number of digits

before or after a decimal point.
 Enables a computer to work speedily with very large or
small numbers
 Requires special processing circuitry

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 How Computers represent Data

 Characters (letters,  The three main types of

numbers, and symbols) are character codes are:
translated into numbers the  American Standard Code
computer understands. for Information
 Character code performs Interchange (ASCII)
this translation.  Extended Binary Coded

Decimal Interchange
Code (EBCIDIC)
 Unicode

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 How Computers represent Data

 American Standard Code for Information Interchange

(ASCII) is an 8-bit standard.

 Unicode is a 16-bit standard.

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ASCII

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 Introducing the System Unit

 The case that contains the major hardware components of

the computer is called the system unit.
 System units come in a variety of styles and have varying
footprints.
 The footprint is the amount of room that the computer
takes up on a desk.

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 Introducing the System Unit

 System units also come in a variety of form factors.

 The form factor is the manner in which the internal
components of a computer are located within the system
unit.
 Form factor is a hardware design aspect that defines and
prescribes the size, shape, and other physical specifications
of components, particularly in electronics. A form
factor may represent a broad class of similarly sized
components, or it may prescribe a specific standard.

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System Unit

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 Inside the System Unit

Main components in the system unit are:

 Motherboard  Internal speaker

 CPU  Drive bays
 Power supply  Expansion slots
 Cooling fan

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Inside the System Unit

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Inside the System Unit

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Inside the
System Unit

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 What’s on the Motherboard?

 The motherboard is the printed circuit board that contains

the electrical circuitry for the computer.
 The majority of parts found on the motherboard are defined
as integrated circuits.
 An integrated circuit (chip) includes millions of
transistors and carries electrical current.
 A transistor is a switch that is able to control the
electrical signal flow to the circuit.

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 The Second Generation:
Transistors Transistor

 Transistor - 1958-1964
 Use of transistors defines the second
generation of computers
 It has become widely accepted to classify Capacitor
computers into generations based on the
fundamental hardware technology
employed.
 Each new generation is characterized by
greater processing performance, larger
memory capacity, and smaller size than the
previous one.
Resistor
 Generations of Computer –
Summary
 Vacuum tube – (1946 - 1957)
 Transistor – (1958 -1964)
 SSI – Small scale integration – (1965 on
• Up to 100 devices on a chip
 MSI – Medium scale integration - to 1971
• 100 – 3,000 devices on a chip
 LSI – Large scale integration – (1971 - 1977)
• 3,000 – 100,000 devices on a chip
 VLSI – Very large scale integration – 1978 to date
• 100,000 – 100,000,000 devices on a chip
 ULSI – Ultra large scale integration
• Over 100,000,000 devices on a chip
Motherboard

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 What’s on the Motherboard?

 The integrated circuit chip

that processes electronic
signals is called the
central processing unit
(CPU).
 The central processing
unit is also known as a
microprocessor or
processor.

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 What’s on the Motherboard?

 Each operation performed by the CPU is assigned a specific

number called an instruction.
 An instruction set is the list of CPU instructions for the
operations that it performs.

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Main Parts of a CPU

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 Main Parts of a CPU

 Three main parts of the CPU are the control unit,

arithmetic logic unit (ALU) and the registers.
 The control unit retrieves / fetches instructions from
memory and interprets / decodes those instructions.
 The control unit manages the machine cycle or
processing cycle, the four-part process performed by
the CPU, also called Instruction Execution Cycle.

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 Main Parts of a CPU

 The ALU (Arithmetic Logic

Unit) of the CPU performs
calculations and logical
operations of data item
comparisons.
 When data must be temporarily
stored in the CPU, it is stored in
locations known as registers.

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 Instruction Execution Cycle

 The control unit manages four operations:

 Fetch: CU retrieves program instructions.
 Decode: CU determines what the program is telling the
computer to do
 Execute: ALU performs the requested action
 Store: CU stores the results to an internal register

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 Instruction Execution Cycle

Instruction Cycle consists of

four sub cycles
 Fetch Cycle
 Decode Cycle
 Execution Cycle
 Store
 What does the CPU do?

All that a CPU do, as long as

the power is on, is:

Fetch Decode

Store Execute
 Instruction Execution Cycle

Four steps:
 Fetch
 Decode
 Execute
 Store

Start Fetch Next Decode Execute Store

Instruction Instruction Instruction Result

Halt
 Factor affecting CPU’s Performance

 Factors that affect the performance of a CPU include:

1. The number of existing transistors
2. Data Bus Width and the Word Size
3. Clock Cycle: Operations per microprocessor cycle
4. Use of Parallel Processing Techniques
5. Type of Chip

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 Data Bus and Word Size

 The group of parallel wires that connect the CPU’s internal

components is called the data bus.
 Data bus width is measured in bits.
 The maximum number of bits that the CPU can process
at one time is called the word size.
 Word size determines which operating systems and
software a CPU can run.

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 Program and Process

Program Process
 Set of instructions  Program in execution

 Resides in Secondary  Present in Main Memory

Storage  Active entity
 Passive entity

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Data Bus Width, Register Size and
Word Size of a CPU

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Word Size of a CPU
A 16-bit Microprocessor

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 System Clock / Clock Speed

 The electronic circuit that produces rapid pulses and

coordinates the computer’s internal activities is called the
system clock.
 Clock speed is the measurement of the electrical pulses
generated by the system clock and is usually measured
in gigahertz (GHz).
 In general, the higher the clock speed, the faster the
computer.

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 Pipelining

 The number of operations per tick of the system clock

affects the microprocessor performance.
 Superscalar architecture enables the CPU to perform
more than one instruction for each clock cycle.
 Pipelining enables the CPU to process more than one
instruction at a time, which improves CPU performance.
 Pipelining is the mechanism to achieve the effect of
multiprocessing on a Single-processor machine.

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Pipelining

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Parallel Processing

 Parallel processing
is a method in which
more than one
processors perform
at the same time,
resulting in faster
processing.
 Also called
Multiprocessing

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 What’s on the Motherboard?

 The set of chips that collectively supply the switching

circuitry required by the CPU to move data throughout the
computer is identified as the chip set.
 The CPU and the input/output (I/O) bus are linked
through the chip set.
 The input/output bus provides a means to communicate
with input and output devices.

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 Random Access Memory (RAM)

 Temporarily stores data and instructions to be used by the

Central Processing Unit.
 Volatile: Contents erased when the computer is shut off.
 Permits the CPU to access or store data and instructions
quickly through RAM’s memory address feature.

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RAM

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 Read-only memory (ROM)

 Contents not erased when power to the computer

is turned off.
 Non-volatile
 WORM (Write-Once-Read-Many) Mechanism

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 Cache Memory

 Extremely fast memory that is part of the CPU

 Faster and more expensive than random access memory
 Three types of cache:
 Level 1 / L1 Cache, found in the microprocessor chip
 Level 2 / L2 Cache, located on a circuit board
 Level 3 / L3 Cache, located on a circuit board

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Memory System / Memory Hierarchy

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Memory System / Memory Hierarchy

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 What’s on the Outside of the Box?

 The front panel includes:

 The reset switch, which is used to restart the computer
 The drive activity light, which advises the user that
the hard drive is retrieving data
 The power-on light, which shows whether the power is
on
 The power switch, which may be used to turn the
computer on or off

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What’s on the Outside of the Box?

 A connector is where the

user can plug a peripheral
device into the computer.
 A port is the interface
used to send data into, and
retrieve data from, the
computer.
 A port is a communication
end point.

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 What’s on the Outside of the Box?

 Currently used ports :  Currently used connectors:

 USB (Universal Serial Bus)  VGA (Video Graphics
port Array) connector
 Phone and network
 1394 (FireWire) ports
connectors
 DVI (Digital Visual  PC card slots
Interface) port
 Sound card connectors
 Game cards
 TV/sound capture board
connectors

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Ports

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 Older ports phased out …

 Legacy technology
 Older technology being phased out:
 Parallel ports
 Serial ports
 SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) ports
 PS/2 ports

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 What You’ve Learned

 Computers work with binary numbers, which include only 0s

and 1s.
 The smallest piece of data that a computer can work with is
known as a bit; eight bits equal a byte. Bytes are used to
represent a character.
 Data transfer rates for communication devices (modems)
are measured in bits per second.
 Data storage is measured in bytes.
 The system unit’s main circuit board is the motherboard.
The processor, memory, circuits, and other computer
components are connected to it.
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 What You’ve Learned

 Other elements of the system unit include the power

supply, cooling fan, internal speaker, drive bays, and
expansion cards.
 The central processing unit (CPU) is the “brains” of the
computer.
 The CPU is made up of the control unit and the arithmetic logic
unit (ALU).
 The control unit manages the four-step machine cycle: fetch,
decode, execute, and store.
 The ALU performs calculations and logical operations.
 Factors that influence the performance of the CPU include the
data bus width, clock speed, pipelining, and parallel processing. 57
 What You’ve Learned

 Main memory, RAM, is volatile and temporarily holds

programs, data, and instructions for execution.
 Read-only memory (ROM), which is nonvolatile, contains
prerecorded computer start-up instructions.
 Cache memory is additional CPU memory that operates at
very fast speeds and is used to address the Performance
Mismatch Issue.
 Most computers have USB ports, video ports, input and
output audio jacks, telephone connectors, and network
connectors, and some have a FireWire port.
 Legacy ports include serial ports, parallel ports, PS/2 ports,
and SCSI ports. 58