Application of

Information &
Computing
Technologies
Lecture 6

Rana Taimur Khan

Lecturer GCUF
•The last lecture, Lec 5, was on Web dev.
•Today our focus will be on microprocessor
 Goals for Today
Today we want to learn about the microprocessor,
the key component, the brain, of a computer

We’ll learn about the function of a microprocessor

And its various sub-systems

– Bus interface unit
– Data & instruction cache memory
– Instruction decoder
– Arithmetic-Logic unit
– Floating-point unit
– Control unit
 Microprocessor
• The key element of all computers, providing the
mathematical and decision making ability

• Current state-of-the-art uPs (Pentium, Athlon,

SPARC, PowerPC) contain complex circuits
consisting of tens of millions of transistors

• They operate at ultra-fast speeds – doing over

a billion operations very second

• Made up from a semiconductor, Silicon

 Integrated Circuits
• Commonly known as an IC or a chip

• A tiny piece of Silicon that has several

electronic parts on it

• Most of the size of an IC comes form the pins

and packaging; the actual Silicon occupies a
very small piece of the volume

• The smallest components on an IC are much

smaller than the thickness of a human hair
 Those components are …
• Devices
– Transistors
– Diodes
– Resistors
– Capacitors
– Wires

• And are made of the following materials

– Silicon - semiconductor
– Copper - conductor
– Silicon Dioxide - insulator
 A microprocessor system?
• uPs are powerful pieces of hardware, but not
much useful on their own

• Just as the human brain needs hands, feet,

eyes, ears, mouth to be useful; so does the uP

• A uP system is uP plus all the components it

requires to do a certain task

• A microcomputer is 1 example of a uP system

 Micro-controllers?
• Micro-controllers are another type of uP
systems

• They are generally not that powerful, cost a few

dollars a piece, and are found embedded in
video games, VCRs, microwave ovens,
printers, autos, etc.

• They are a complete computer on a chip

containing direct input and output capability
and memory along with the uP on a single chip.
Many times they contain other specialized
application-specific components as well
 QUESTION:

Why do we ever build just uPs?

Why not just build micro-controllers

that contain everything on chip?
More than 90% of the microprocessors/micro-
controllers manufactured are used in
embedded computing applications

In 2000 alone, 365 million uPs and 6.4 billion

micro-controllers were manufactured
 The Main Memory Bottleneck
• Modern super-fast uPs can process a huge
amount of data in a short duration

• They require quick access to data to maximize

their performance

• If they don’t receive the data that they require,

they literally stop and wait – this results in
reduced performance and wasted power

• Current uPs can process an instruction in about

a ns. Time required for fetching data from main
memory (RAM) is of the order of 100 ns
 Solution to the Bottleneck Problem
• Make the main memory faster

• Problem with that approach: The 1-ns memory is

extremely expensive as compared the currently
popular 100-ns memory

• Another solution: In addition to the relatively slow

main memory, put a small amount of ultra-fast RAM
right next to the uP on the same chip and make sure
that frequently used data and instructions resides in
that ultra-fast memory

• Advantage: Much better overall performance due to

fast access to frequently-used data and instructions
 On-Chip Cache Memory (1)
• That small amount of memory located on the
same chip as the uP is called On-Chip Cache
Memory

• The uP stores a copy of frequently used data

and instructions in its cache memory

• When the uP desires to look at a piece of data,

it checks in the cache first. If it is not there,
only then the uP asks for the same from the
main memory
 On-Chip Cache Memory (2)
• The small size and proximity to the uP makes
access times short, resulting in a boost in
performance (it is easy to find things in a small box placed next to you)

• uPs predict what data will be required for future

calculations and pre-fetches that data and
places it in the cache so that it is available
immediately when the need arises

• The speed-advantage of cache memory is

greatly dependent on the algorithm used for
deciding about what to put in cache or not
uP Building Blocks
 Microprocessor
Data
Cache
Memory
Bus Control Arithmetic
RAM Bus Unit & Logic
Interface Unit
I/O Unit
Instruction Registers
System Decoder
Bus
Floating
Point
Unit
Instruction
Cache Registers
 Bus Interface Unit
• Receives instructions & data from main
memory

• Instructions are then sent to the instruction

cache, data to the data cache

• Also receives the processed data and sends it

to the main memory
 Instruction Decoder
• This unit receives the programming instructions
and decodes them into a form that is
understandable by the processing units, i.e. the
ALU or FPU

• Then, it passes on the decoded instruction to

the ALU or FPU
 Arithmetic & Logic Unit (ALU)
• Also known as the “Integer Unit”

• It performs whole-number math calculations

(subtract, multiply, divide, etc) comparisons (is
greater than, is smaller than, etc.) and logical
operations (NOT, OR, AND, etc)

• The new breed of popular uPs have not one but

two almost identical ALU’s that can do
calculations simultaneously, doubling the
capability
 Floating-Point Unit (FPU)
• Also known as the “Numeric Unit”

• It performs calculations that involve numbers

represented in the scientific notation (also
known as floating-point numbers).

• This notation can represent extremely small

and extremely large numbers in a compact form

• Floating-point calculations are required for

doing graphics, engineering and scientific work

• The ALU can do these calculations as well, but

will do them very slowly
 Registers
• Both ALU & FPU have a very small amount of
super-fast private memory placed right next to
them for their exclusive use. These are called
registers

• The ALU & FPU store intermediate and final

results from their calculations in these registers

• Processed data goes back to the data cache

and then to main memory from these registers
 Control Unit
• The brain of the uP

• Manages the whole uP

• Tasks include fetching instructions & data,

storing data, managing input/output devices
 Microprocessor
Data
Cache
Memory
Bus Control Arithmetic
RAM Bus Unit & Logic
Interface Unit
I/O Unit
Instruction Registers
System Decoder
Bus
Floating
Point
Unit
Instruction
Cache Registers
That was the structure,
now let’s talk about the
language of a uP
 Instruction Set
• The set of machine instructions that a uP
recognizes and can execute – the only
language uP knows

• An instruction set includes low-level, a single

step-at-a-time instructions, such as add,
subtract, multiply, and divide

• Each uP family has its unique instruction set

• Bigger instruction-sets mean more complex

chips (higher costs, reduced efficiency), but
shorter programs
 The 1 uP: Intel 4004
st

• Introduced 1971
• 2250 transistors
• 108 kHz, 60,000 ops/sec
• 16 pins
• 10-micron process
• As powerful as the ENIAC which had 18000 tubes
and occupied a large room
• Targeted use: Calculators
• Cost: less than $100
 Why Intel came up with the idea?
• A Japanese calculator manufacturer – Busicom
– wanted Intel to develop 16 separate IC’s for a
line of new calculators

• Intel, at that point in time known only as a

memory manufacturer, was quite small and did
not have the resources to do all 16 chips

• Ted Hoff came up with the idea of doing all 16

on a single chip

• Later, Intel realized that the 4004 could have

other uses as well
 Popular – Intel Pentium 4 (2.2GHz)
• Introduced December 2001

• 55 million transistors

• 32-bit word size

• 2 ALU’s, each working at 4.4GHz

• 128-bit FPU

• 0.13 micron process

• Targeted use: PC’s and low-end workstations

• Cost: around $600

 Moore’s Law
• In 1965, one of the founders of Intel – Gordon
Moore – predicted that the number of
transistor on an IC (and therefore the
capability of microprocessors) will double
every year. Later he modified it to 18-months

• His prediction still holds true. In fact, the time

required for doubling is contracting to the
original prediction, and is closer to a year now
Evolution of Intel Microprocessors
4004 8008 8080 8086 286 386 486 Pentium Pentium 2 Pentium 3 Pentium 4

100,000,000

10,000,000

1,000,000

100,000

10,000

1,000
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
4-, 8-, 16-, 32-, 64-bit (Word Length)
• The 4004 dealt with data in chunks of 4-bits at
a time

• Pentium 4 deals with data in chunks (words) of

32-bit length

• The new Itanium processor deals with 64-bit

chunks (words) at a time

• Why have more bits (longer words)?

 kHz, MHz, GHz (Clock Frequency)
• 4004 worked at a clock frequency of 108kHz

• The latest processors have clock freqs. in GHz

• Out of 2 uPs having similar designs, one with

higher clock frequency will be more powerful

• Same is not true for 2 uPs of dissimilar designs.

Example: Out of PowerPC & Pentium 4 uPs
working at the same freq, the former performs
better due to superior design. Same for the
Athlon uP when compared with a Pentium
Enhancing the capability of a uP?
The computing capability of a uP can
be enhanced in many different ways:
– By increasing the clock frequency

– By increasing the word-width

– By having a more effective caching

algorithm and the right cache size

– By adding more functional units (e.g.

ALU’s, FPU’s, Vector/SIMD units, etc.)

– Improving the architecture

 What have we learnt today?
Today we learnt about the microprocessor, the
key component, the brain, of a computer

We learnt about the function of a microprocessor

And its various sub-systems

– Bus interface unit
– Data & instruction cache memory
– Instruction decoder
– ALU
– Floating-point unit
– Control unit
 Next lecture is on
binary numbers & logic operations
1. About the binary number system, and how it differs
from the decimal system

2. Positional notation for representing binary and

decimal numbers

3. A process (or algorithm) which can be used to

convert decimal numbers to binary numbers

4. Basic logic operations for Boolean variables, i.e.

NOT, OR, AND, XOR, NOR, NAND, XNOR

5. Construction of truth tables (How many rows?)