INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview
Computer architecture deals with the functional behavior of a computer system as viewed by a programmer. This view includes aspects such as the sizes of data types (e.g. using 16 binary digits to represent an integer), and the types of operations that are supported (like addition, subtraction, and subroutine calls). Computer organization deals with structural relationships that are not visible to the programmer, such as interfaces to peripheral devices, the clock frequency, and the technology used for the memory. This textbook deals with both architecture and organization, with the term “architecture” referring broadly to both architecture and organization.
There is a concept of levels in computer architecture. The basic idea is that there are many levels, or views, at which a computer can be considered, from the high- est level, where the user is running programs, or using the computer, to the low- est level, consisting of transistors and wires. Between the high and low levels are a number of intermediate levels. Before we discuss those levels we will present a brief history of computing in order to gain a perspective on how it all came about.
1.2 A Brief History
Mechanical devices for controlling complex operations have been in existence since at least the 1500’s, when rotating pegged cylinders were used in music boxes much as they are today. Machines that perform calculations, as opposed to simply repeating a predetermined melody, came in the next century.
Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662) developed a mechanical calculator to help in his father’s tax work. The Pascal calculator “Pascaline” contains eight dials that connect to a drum (Figure 1-1), with an innovative linkage that causes a dial to
rotate one notch when a carry is produced from a dial in a lower position. A win- dow is placed over the dial to allow its position to be observed, much like the odometer in a car except that the dials are positioned horizontally, like a rotary telephone dial. Some of Pascal’s adding machines, which he started to build in 1642, still exist today. It would not be until the 1800’s, however, until someone would put the concepts of mechanical control and mechanical calculation together into a machine that we recognize today as having the basic parts of a digital computer. That person was Charles Babbage.
Charles Babbage (1791 – 1871) is sometimes referred to as the grandfather of the computer, rather than the father of the computer, because he never built a practical version of the machines he designed. Babbage lived in England at a time when mathematical tables were used in navigation and scientific work. The tables were computed manually, and as a result, they contained numerous errors. Frustrated by the inaccuracies, Babbage set out to create a machine that would compute tables by simply setting and turning gears. The machine he designed could even produce a plate to be used by a printer, thus eliminating errors that might be introduced by a typesetter.
Babbage’s machines had a means for reading input data, storing data, performing calculations, producing output data, and automatically controlling the operation of the machine. These are basic functions that are found in nearly every modern computer. Babbage created a small prototype of his difference engine, which evaluates polynomials using the method of finite differences. The success of the difference engine concept gained him government support for the much larger analytical engine, which was a more sophisticated machine that had a mechanism for branching (making decisions) and a means for programming, using punched cards in the manner of what is known as the Jacquard pattern-weaving loom.
The analytical engine was designed, but was never built by Babbage because the mechanical tolerances required by the design could not be met with the technology of the day. A version of Babbage’s difference engine was actually built by the Science Museum in London in 1991, and can still be viewed today.
It took over a century, until the start of World War II, before the next major thrust in computing was initiated. In England, German U-boat submarines were inflicting heavy damage on Allied shipping. The U-boats received communications from their bases in Germany using an encryption code, which was implemented by a machine made by Siemens AG known as ENIGMA.
The process of encrypting information had been known for a long time, and even the United States president Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826) designed a forerunner of ENIGMA, though he did not construct the machine. The process of decoding encrypted data was a much harder task. It was this problem that prompted the efforts of Alan Turing (1912 – 1954), and other scientists in England in creating codebreaking machines. During World War II, Turing was the leading cryptographer in England and was among those who changed cryptography from a subject for people who deciphered ancient languages to a subject for mathematicians.
The Colossus was a successful codebreaking machine that came out of Bletchley Park, England, where Turing worked. Vacuum tubes store the contents of a paper tape that is fed into the machine, and computations take place among the vac- uum tubes and a second tape that is fed into the machine. Programming is per- formed with plugboards. Turing’s involvement in the various Collosi machine versions remains obscure due to the secrecy that surrounds the project, but some aspects of his work and his life can be seen in the Broadway play Breaking the Code which was performed in London and New York in the late 1980’s.
Around the same time as Turing’s efforts, J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly set out to create a machine that could be used to compute tables of ballistic trajectories for the U.S. Army. The result of the Eckert-Mauchly effort was the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC). The ENIAC consists of
18,000 vacuum tubes, which make up the computing section of the machine. Programming and data entry are performed by setting switches and changing cables. There is no concept of a stored program, and there is no central memory unit, but these are not serious limitations because all that the ENIAC needed to do was to compute ballistic trajectories. Even though it did not become operational until 1946, after the War was over, it was considered quite a success, and was used for nine years.
After the success of ENIAC, Eckert and Mauchly, who were at the Moore School at the University of Pennsylvania, were joined by John von Neumann (1903 – 1957), who was at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Together, they worked on the design of a stored program computer called the EDVAC. A conflict developed, however, and the Pennsylvania and Princeton groups split. The concept of a stored program computer thrived, however, and a working model of the stored program computer, the EDSAC, was constructed by Maurice Wilkes, of Cambridge University, in 1947.
1.3 The Von Neumann Model
Conventional digital computers have a common form that is attributed to von Neumann, although historians agree that the entire team was responsible for the design. The von Neumann model consists of five major components as illustrated in Figure 1-2. The Input Unit provides instructions and data to the sys-
tem, which are subsequently stored in the Memory Unit. The instructions and data are processed by the Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) under the direction of the Control Unit. The results are sent to the Output Unit. The ALU and control unit are frequently referred to collectively as the central processing unit (CPU). Most commercial computers can be decomposed into these five basic units.
The stored program is the most important aspect of the von Neumann model. A program is stored in the computer’s memory along with the data to be pro- cessed. Although we now take this for granted, prior to the development of the stored program computer programs were stored on external media, such as plug- boards (mentioned earlier) or punched cards or tape. In the stored program computer the program can be manipulated as if it is data. This gave rise to compilers and operating systems, and makes possible the great versatility of the modern computer.