 CO1:

Explain computer evolution and the various components of

a computer system and its operation.
Evolution of Computers
characterized by
 Decreasing component size (reduce distance between
components and increase speed, heavy pipelining)
 Increasing processor speed
 Increasing memory size
 Increasing I/O capacity and speed
Generations of Computers

 First Generation: Vacuum Tubes (VT)

 Second Generation: Transistors

 Third Generations: Integrated Circuits (ICs)

 More Generations…
First Generation (VT):
ENIAC - background
 Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer
(ENIAC)
 First general purpose electronic digital computers
 Eckert and Mauchly proposed to build ENIAC
 University of Pennsylvania
 Computation for Trajectory tables for weapons
 Started 1943
 Finished 1946
 Too late for War effort
 Used until 1955 for hydrogen bomb visibility.
ENIAC - details
 Decimal (not binary)
 Memory: 20 accumulators each holds 10-digit decimal
number
 A ring of 10 VT represent each digit
 Programmed manually by switches, plug/unplug cables
 18,000 vacuum tubes
 30 tons
 15,000 square feet
 140 kW power consumption
 5,000 additions per second
von Neumann/Turing
 Stored Program concept instead of plugging cables.
 Main memory storing programs and data (Stored
Program Concept).
 ALU operating on binary data
 Control unit interpreting instructions from memory
and executing
 Input and output equipment operated by control unit
 Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies
 IAS was designed
 Started at 1946 Completed 1952
Structure of IAS (von Neumann machine)

• Main Memory
• CA: Central Arithmetic
• CC: Central Control
• Input / Output

•All Computers today have almost the same general structure

IAS - details
 Memory: 1000 x 40 bit words
 Binary number (40 bit)
 2 x 20 bit instructions

 Set of registers (storage in CPU)

 Memory Buffer Register (MBR): contains data to be sent to./rec. from
Memory or I/O.

 Memory Address Register (MAR): specify an address in memory.

 Instruction Register (IR): contains 8-bit op code being executed.

 Instruction Buffer Register (IBR): contains 20-bit the right hand instruction
from a word in memory.

 Program Counter (PC): contains address of next instruction to be fetched.

 Accumulator (AC), Multiplier Quotient (MQ): hold operands and results of

ALU operation.
IAS Memory location formats

•40 bit memory locations

•Can hold 40 bit numbers
•Or 2- 20 bit instructions

0 39

One number

0 8 20 28 39
Op. code Address Op. code Address

Two instructions
Structure of IAS
Operation of IAS

•IAS performs instruction cycle: fetch cycle and execute cycle

•A total of 21 instructions.
•Data Transfer
•Unconditional branch
•Conditional branch
•Arithmetic
Commercial Computers (IAS-based)

 1947 - Eckert-Mauchly formed Computer Corporation

 1950-UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer): for
scientific and commercial application (matrix
computations, statistical problems, billing systems)
 Became part of Sperry-Rand Corporation
 Late 1950s - UNIVAC II
 Faster, higher performance
 More memory
 Backward compatible
IBM
 Punched-card processing equipment
 1953 - the 701
 IBM’s first stored program computer
 Scientific calculations
 1955 - the 702
 Business applications
 Lead to 7000 series
Second Generation: Transistors
 Replaced vacuum tubes
 Smaller
 Cheaper
 Less heat dissipation
 Solid State device
 Made from Silicon
 Invented 1947 at Bell Labs
 Also 2nd generation introduced:
 More complex Arithmetic and Logic Unit.
 More complex Control Unit.
Transistor Based Computers
 Second generation machines:

 NCR & RCA produced first small transistor machines

 IBM followed by the 7000 series
 DEC - 1957
 Produced PDP-1
Example of the IBM 700/7000 series

Model Date CPU Cycle Memory # FPU Speed

Number Technolo Time (K) Instructi relative
gy (micro ons to 701
sec)
701 1952 Vacuum 30 2-4 24 No 1
tubes
704 1955 Vacuum 12 4-32 80 Yes 2.5
tubes
7090 1960 Transistors 2.18 32 169 Yes 25

7094 I 1962 Transistors 2.12 32 185 Yes 30

(DP)
7094 II 1964 Transistors 1.4 32 185 Yes 50
(DP)
Basic Components of a computer
 The basic functions of a computer: (storage, movement,
processing, control functions)

 Two fundamental elements are required:

gates, memory cells and interconnections
 By connecting a large number of these two components, we
can construct a computer.

 Data storage: provided by memory cells

 Data processing: provided by gates
 Data movement: wires are used to move data through gates
 Control: wires can carry control signals. CU is designed
using gates
Microelectronics
 Literally - “small electronics”

 Invention of Integrated Circuits (Third Generation)

 Before, all components (transistors, resistors,

capacitors) are discrete.

 Many components can be fabricated on the same chip

and connected by a process called metallization
Generations of Computer
 Vacuum tube - 1946-1957

 Transistor - 1958-1964

 Integrated Circuits
 Small scale integration - 1965 on
 Up to 100 devices on a chip
 Medium scale integration - to 1971
 100-3,000 devices on a chip
 Large scale integration - 1971-1977
 3,000 - 100,000 devices on a chip
 Very large scale integration - 1978 -1991
 100,000 - 100,000,000 devices on a chip
 Ultra large scale integration – 1991 -
 Over 100,000,000 devices on a chip
Moore’s Law
 Increased density of components on chip

 Gordon Moore – co-founder of Intel

 Number of transistors on a chip doubles 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 (Cost of Logic gates

and memory fall dramatically)

 Higher packing density means shorter electrical paths, giving

higher performance

 Reduced power and cooling requirements

Growth in CPU Transistor Count
IBM 360 series - 3rd generation

 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 (with new features)
 The invention of ICs has led to

 Semiconductor memory, 1970

 Microprocessors, 1971
Semiconductor Memory
 The invention of ICs has led to semiconductor memory, 1970 (Memory
could be constructed using ICs)

 Before, memory was built using rings of magnetic core (keep data, non
volatile)

 Size of a single core i.e. 1 bit of magnetic core storage

is replaced by a chip which holds 256 bits

 Non-destructive read

 Much faster than core

 Capacity approximately doubles each year

Microprocessors by Intel
 1971 - 4004
 First microprocessor
 All CPU components on a single chip
 4 bit, can multiply by repeated addition
 Followed in 1972 by 8008
 8 bit
 Both designed for specific applications
 1974 - 8080
 Intel’s first general purpose microprocessor
 Evolution of Intel Microprocessors
4004 8008 8086 8088 80286 80386 80486 Pentiu Core 2 Core i9-
m Duo 7900X
(2 (10
cores) cores)

Introduc 1971 1972 1978 1979 1982 1985 1989 1993 2006
2017
ed
Clock 108K 108KHz 10MH 8MH 12.5M 33MHz 50MHz 166MH 1.2GH
4.3 GHz
speed Hz z z Hz z z
Bus 4 8 bits 16 8 16 32 bits 32 bits 32 bits 64 bits
64 bits
Width bits bits bits bits
# of 2300 3500 29000 29000 134000 275000 1.2 3.1 167
7.2
transisto million million millio
billion
rs n
Address 640 16KB 1MB 1MB 16MB 4GB 4GB 4GB 64GB 128GB
able bytes
Memory

Cache 8KB 8KB 2MB 14MB

Need for Performance Balance
 Processor speed increased
 Memory capacity increased
 Memory speed lags behind processor speed
Logic and Memory Performance (Memory Wall)
Processor speed

 Designers always work to increase the speed:

 Increase the clock
 Pipelining
 On board cache and On Chip Cache
 Branch prediction
 Data flow analysis

This has increased the gap between processor and

memory.
Solutions to reduce the Gap
 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
Key is Balance
 Designers try to balance the performance of computer
components

 Processor components
 Main memory
 I/O devices
 Interconnection structures
Improvements in Chip Organization and
Architecture
 Balance is important but still more speed is required.
 Increase hardware speed of processor
 Fundamentally due to shrinking logic gate size
 More gates, packed more tightly, increasing clock rate
 Propagation time for signals reduced

 Increase size and speed of caches

 Dedicating part of processor chip
 Cache access times drop significantly

 Change processor organization and architecture

 Increase speed through Parallelism (super scaling, super pipelining)
Problems with Clock Speed and
Logic Density
 Power (due to increasing clock)
 Power density increases with density of logic and clock speed
 Dissipating heat
 RC delay (due to increasing logic density)
 Speed at which electrons flow limited by resistance and capacitance of
metal wires connecting them
 Delay increases as RC product increases
 Wire interconnects thinner, increasing resistance
 Wires closer together, increasing capacitance
 Memory latency
 Memory speeds lag processor speeds
 Solution:
 More emphasis on organizational and architectural approaches than
increasing the speed.
Increased Cache Capacity
 Typically two or three levels of cache between
processor and main memory
 Chip density increased
 More cache memory on chip
 Faster cache access
 Pentium chip devoted about 10% of chip area to cache
 Pentium 4 devotes about 50%
More Complex Execution Logic
 Enable parallel execution of instructions
 Pipeline works like assembly line
 Different stages of executing different instructions at
same time along pipeline
 Superscalar allows multiple pipelines within single
processor
 Instructions that do not depend on one another can be
executed in parallel
Diminishing Returns
 Internal organization of processors complex
 Benefits of parallelism started to be limited.

 Benefits from cache are reaching limit.

 Increasing clock rate runs into power dissipation

problem
New Approach – Multiple Cores
 Multiple processors on single chip
 Large shared cache

 If software can use multiple processors, doubling number of processors

almost doubles performance

 So, use two simpler processors on the chip rather than one more complex
processor

 With two processors, larger caches are justified

 Power consumption of memory logic less than processing logic