Introduction 11
It deals with data path design and data ow control concepts and introduces the need of micro-operations for
a processor. The next chapter, Chapter 10, uses these concepts for the CU design of processors. In both these
chapters, several example cases are presented for easier understanding of the basic concepts.
The OS is one of the fundamental modules of computers and its essential features are introduced
in Chapter 11. Concept of a process, various scheduling issues and the need for critical section and its
handling through semaphores are introduced in this chapter.
The next two chapters, Chapters 12 and 13, are devoted for essential architectural features of all
modern processors, namely pipeline architecture and parallel processing. Pipeline architecture speeds
up the execution process and is adopted in all modern processors, which is the theme of Chapter 12.
Several common techniques like out-of-order execution, register renaming and speculative execution
are discussed in this chapter. In Chapter 13, the theme is superscalar architecture, which allows a pro-
cessor to execute multiple instructions simultaneously. Some details of Intel’s Pentium 4 processor are
presented as example cases in these two chapters.
As embedded systems are ooding the market and is considered as an integral part of computer systems,
Chapter 14 is devoted for some initial discussions on this topic. As an example for these issues, Atmel
Corporation’s AVR microcontroller (ATmega8) is taken up in this chapter. Internal and functional details of
some selected peripheral devices, commonly used with any computer system are discussed in Chapter 15.
Appendix A discusses some essential features of the number systems. In the following four appendi-
ces, architectural and organizational issues of four advanced processors are discussed. These processors
are SPARC and UltraSPARC from SUN Microsystems, Power PC from AIM, Core2Duo from Intel and
R4000 from MIPS Corporation. Except Intel’s Core2Duo, the remaining three processors are excellent
examples for pure RISC architecture. A project bank is given in Appendix F to conclude the discussions
with some exercises.
SUMMARY
Computers are electronic machines capable of number crunching and control operations, executing
them through the instructions of the software. Historically, they are categorized as rst, second, third
and fourth-generation computers, depending upon their essential electronic parts being vacuum tubes,
transistors, integrated circuits and VLSI chips, respectively. ENIAC was the rst electronic computer
followed by IBM 700 and 7000 series, PDP series, IBM System/360 series, Cray-1, Apple series, IBM
PC and so on. Considering their size, capabilities and usages, they may be classi ed as embedded sys-
tems, PCs, work stations, servers and mainframe.
Embedded system, generally, does not support any user program and runs mostly on battery power.
PCs are for user-interactive services while work stations provide better computing power than PCs.
Servers have larger disc space and memory, offering high speed data communication. Mainframes are
for massive record keeping and huge I/O processing at faster speed.
POINTS TO REMEMBER
R Computer architecture deals with overall design issues of a computer, while computer organization
deals with its electronic details for implementing these architectural issues.
R Computer organization has undergone much more transformation against time with respect to the
changes incorporated in computer architecture.
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