CHAPTER THREE: INSIDE THE COMPUTER

Internal components are contained in the System Unit. The system unit is the unit that
houses the processing unit (processor), memory, the input output controllers and the
buses. The system unit is often called the Central Processing Unit.
The external components of a computer are called peripheral devices which include
input and output.
The Processor
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The processor contains the control unit and the arithmetic/logic unit(ALU) and the
system clock.
The control unit coordinates and controls all the operations carried out by the
computer. The control unit operates by repeating three operations which are:
 Fetch – cause the next instruction to be fetched from memory;
 Decode – translate the program instruction into commands that the
computer can process
 Execute – cause the instruction to be executed
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The arithmetic/logic unit(ALU) plays two roles.

 Arithmetic operations – these operations are addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division..
 Logical operations – it compares two data items to determine whether the first
one is smaller than, equal to or greater than the second item.
The system clock – generates a continuous sequence of clock pulses to step the control
unit through its operation.
Clock speed
In order to synchronise the various steps carried out during the fetch-execute cycle, all
the processors have an internal clock which generates regularly timed pulses. All the
processor activities, such as fetching an instruction, reading data into the memory
register etc. must begin on a clock pulse, although some activities take more than one
clock pulse to complete. Typically the clock pulse rate in 2000 is around 500 megahertz
 (million cycles per second). The clock speed, therefore, is one of the factors which will
influence the speed at which
instructions are executed; a 600MHZ processor will in general operate faster than a
500MHz processor.
The main features which distinguish one processor from another and which
determine the performance of each are;
 Clock speed
 Word size
 Bus size
 Architecture
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Registers
In addition the CPU contains circuitry controlling the interpretation and execution of
instructions. Special storage locations called registers are included in this circuitry to
hold information temporarily while it is being decoded or manipulated. They are shown
in the block diagram below.

The registers shown in the block diagram above, which represents a ‘typical’
 computer, each have a specific purpose, which is described below.
 Program counter (PC) holds the address of the next instruction to be executed.
It is also known as the sequence control register (SCR) or the sequence
register.
 General purpose registers are used for performing arithmetic functions. In some
computers, there is only one general purpose register, usually called an accumulator,
which acts as the working area.
 Current instruction register (CIR) contains both the operator and the operand of
the current instruction.
 Memory address register (MAR) holds the address of the memory location from
which data will be read or to which data will be written.
 Memory data register (MDR) is used to temporarily store data read from or
written to memory.
 Status register (SR) contains bits that are set or cleared based on the result of an
instruction.
Motherboard
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A motherboard allows all the parts of your computer to receive power and communicate
with one another. Motherboards have come a long way in the last twenty years. The first
motherboards held very few actual components. The first IBM PC motherboard had only
a processor and card slots. Users plugged components like floppy drive controllers and
memory into the slots. Today, motherboards typically boast a wide variety of built-in
features, and they directly affect a computer's capabilities and potential for upgrades.
Form Factor
A motherboard by itself is useless, but a computer has to have one to operate. The
motherboard's main job is to hold the computer's microprocessor chip and let everything
else connect to it. Everything that runs the computer or enhances its performance is
either part of the motherboard or plugs into it via a slot or port. The shape and layout of
a motherboard is called the form factor. The form factor affects where individual
components go and the shape of the computer's case. There are several specific form
factors that most PC motherboards use so that they can all fit in standard cases. The
form factor is just one of the many standards that apply to motherboards. Some of the
other standards include:
 The socket for the microprocessor determines what kind of Central Processing
 Unit (CPU) the motherboard uses.
 The chipset is part of the motherboard's logic system and is usually made of two
parts -- the northbridge and the southbridge. These two "bridges" connect the
CPU to other parts of the computer.
  The Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) chip controls the most basic functions of the
computer and performs a self-test every time you turn it on. Some systems feature
dual BIOS, which provides a backup in case one fails or in case of error during
updating.
 The real time clock chip is a battery-operated chip that maintains basic settings and
the system time.

 Northbridge -Refers to the System Controller component of a Pentium chipset,

responsible for integrating the cache and main memory DRAM control functions and
for managing the host and PCI buses.
 South bridge - Refers to the Peripheral Bus Controller component of a Pentium
chipset, responsible for implementing a PCI-to-ISA bridge function and for managing
the ISA bus and all the ports.
The slots and ports found on a motherboard include:
  Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)- connections for video, sound and
video capture cards, as well as network cards
 Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) - dedicated port for video cards.
 Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) - interfaces for the hard drives
 Universal Serial Bus or FireWire - external peripherals
 Memory slots
Buses
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A Bus is a set of parallel wires connecting two or more components in a computer. The CPU is
connected to the main memory by three separate buses. When the CPU wishes to access a
particular memory location, it sends this address to memory on the address bus. The data in
that memory location is then returned to the CPU on via the data bus. Control signals are sent
along the control bus.

Control Bus
This bus is bi-directional meaning that signals can be carried in both directions. All the
components in the computer share the data and address buses. Control lines are used to
ensure that access to and use of the data and address buses by the different components of the
system does not lead to conflict. The purpose of the control bus is to transmit command ,
timing and specific status information between system components such as the memory,
processor, keyboard input controller VDU output controller and the Disk I/O controller.
Data bus
A data bus provides a bi-directional path for moving data and instructions between system
components. A typical data bus consists of 8, 16, or separate lines. The width of the data bus
is a key factor in determining overall system performance. For example, if the data bus is 8
bits wide, and each instruction is
16 bits long, then the processor must access the main memory twice during each instruction
cycle.
Address bus
When the processor wishes to read a word (say 8, 16, 32 bits) of data from memory, it
first puts the address of the desired word of the address bus. The address bus is used for
communicating the physical addresses of computer memory elements/locations that the
requesting unit wants to access (read/write).
The width of an address bus, along with the size of addressable memory elements,
determines how much memory can be accessed.
Word size
Word size means the number of Bits that the processor can process simultaneously. Typical
processors can have 8-, 16-, 32-, 64- or even larger word sizes. Word size also determines the
speed of the computer. Bus size means the number of bits that can be transmitted together.
Most mainframe computers have 32-bit words.
I/O Controllers
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Each peripheral device operates in a different way and hence these devices cannot be
connected directly to the processor. The processor communicates and controls a peripheral
device through an I/O or device controller. I/O controllers are available which can operate
both input and output transfers of bits, e.g. floppy disk controller. Other controllers operate in
one direction only, either as an input controller, e.g. keyboard controller or as output
controller, e.g. vdu controller.
Common Bus Interfaces
Small Computer System Interface(SCSI)
EISA is the second most commonly used interface for disk drives. Unlike competing
standards, SCSI is capable of supporting eight devices, or sixteen devices with Wide
SCSI.
Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) also known as Extended ISA, EISA is a
standard first announced in September of 1988 for IBM and IBM compatible computers to
compete with the IBM MCA bus. The EISA bus is found on Intel 80386, 80486 and early
Pentium computers. The EISA bus provided 32-
bit slots at an 8.33 MHz cycle rate for the use with 386DX or higher processors. In addition,
the EISA can accommodate a 16-bit ISA card in the first row.

Although the EISA bus is backwards compatible and not a proprietary bus it never
became widely used and is no longer found in computers today.
Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) was introduced by IBM in 1987. MCA, or the Micro
Channel bus, was a competition for ISA bus. The MCA bus offered several additional
features over the ISA such as a 32-bit bus (although there was also a 16-bit bus), ran at
10MHz, automatically configure cards (similar to what Plug and Play is today), and bus
mastering for greater efficiency.
Chapter review questions
1. Briefly describe the roles of the data bus and the address bus within the central
processing unit
2. State one benefit of increasing the width of the data bus
3. State one benefit of increasing the width of the address bus
4. Explain the importance of the system clock