Basic Computer System Architecture

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Questions and Answers

What does the load instruction do in DLW-1?

Transfers data from main memory to a register (correct)

Stores data from a register into main memory

Performs arithmetic operations on register values

Loads immediate values directly into registers

In the provided DLW-1 program, what will be stored in memory cell #14 after execution?

8 (correct)

What is indicated by the term 'immediate value' in the context of DLW-1?

A numerical value specified directly in the instruction (correct)

A data stored in main memory

A reference to a memory address

A temporary storage in a specific register

Which line in the example DLW-1 program performs an addition?

Line 3 Signup and view all the answers

Why is it important for programmers to have a flexible way to access memory in modern computers?

To easily handle billions of possible memory locations Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of opcodes in program execution?

To designate specific operations Signup and view all the answers

Which binary code corresponds to the 'store' instruction in the hypothetical DLW-1 microprocessor?

011 Signup and view all the answers

In the 16-bit format for machine language instructions, what combination is used for both opcodes and register codes?

3-bit for opcodes and 13-bit for register codes Signup and view all the answers

Which register is represented by the binary code '01' in the DLW-1 microprocessor?

Register B Signup and view all the answers

What is the initial action performed by the instruction 'load #(D + 108), A'?

Read memory cell content into Register A Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of the data bus in relation to the ALU?

To move numbers between the ALU and storage Signup and view all the answers

How many registers did the first x86 computers typically possess?

Eight Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following describes the sequence of operations performed by the ALU when adding two numbers?

Obtain two numbers from storage, add, then store the result back in storage Signup and view all the answers

In the context of registers, what is the destination register's role after an addition operation?

To receive and store the result of the addition Signup and view all the answers

What do registers in a computer primarily store?

Data needed for execution Signup and view all the answers

What is a significant feature of modern CPUs in relation to the ALU's operations?

They can perform billions of operations per second Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about the instruction bus is true?

It carries instructions to the ALU for execution Signup and view all the answers

When using a hypothetical computer with registers A, B, C, and D, what does the operation 'A+B=C' imply?

The sum of registers A and B is saved directly to register C Signup and view all the answers

What was one of the significant design improvements proposed by John von Neumann for programming computers?

Representing programs in digital form in memory Signup and view all the answers

Which first generation computer was programmed using 6000 multiposition switches?

ENIAC Signup and view all the answers

How many vacuum tubes did the ENIAC consist of?

18,000 Signup and view all the answers

What is the term used to describe the basic design described by John von Neumann?

Stored-program architecture Signup and view all the answers

What was one of the challenges of the programming method used in the ENIAC?

It required physical movements of switches and cables Signup and view all the answers

Which component was a key feature of first generation computers like the ENIAC?

Vacuum tubes Signup and view all the answers

What significant feature did the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) possess?

It was the first stored-program computer Signup and view all the answers

What form of arithmetic did John von Neumann replace in the design of the EDVAC?

Serial decimal arithmetic Signup and view all the answers

What does the bits 4 and 5 represent in the machine representation of an immediate load instruction?

The immediate value Signup and view all the answers

In the register-type format of a load instruction, which bits are set to zero?

Bits 6 and 7 Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary difference between the load instruction and the store instruction in register-type binary format?

The destination field's purpose Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following best describes the structure of the immediate-type machine language format for a store instruction?

Mode, Opcode, source, destination Signup and view all the answers

In the instruction 'load #12, A', what does the '#' symbol indicate?

Immediate value Signup and view all the answers

What is the machine representation of the instruction 'store C, #14'?

10111000 00001110 Signup and view all the answers

Which instruction format uses a base address with an offset stored in the second byte?

Register-relative addressing Signup and view all the answers

Which field in the store instruction specifies the register containing the data to be stored?

Source1 Signup and view all the answers

What does an immediate value refer to in this context?

A number explicitly stated in the code Signup and view all the answers

In the given add program, what is the purpose of the 'load' instruction?

To read contents from memory into registers Signup and view all the answers

What role does register D play in the add program?

Stores the memory address for data retrieval Signup and view all the answers

How does relative addressing determine access to memory locations?

By adding a fixed value to the base address Signup and view all the answers

Which memory cell is accessed if the base address is 11 and the offset is 3?

14 Signup and view all the answers

In the add program, what happens to the result after the 'add' instruction is executed?

It is stored in a predefined memory location Signup and view all the answers

What will the memory content of cell #14 be after the add operation, assuming 12 in #11 and 6 in #12?

18 Signup and view all the answers

What is the role of the store instruction in the add program?

To permanently write results to memory Signup and view all the answers

Why is the immediate value example important for understanding assembly language?

It allows direct access to memory addresses Signup and view all the answers

What happens when the processor adds 108 to the number in register D?

It calculates an address for loading data Signup and view all the answers

Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Course Information

Course title: Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
Course code: DA 107
Module title: Basic Computer System Architecture

Introduction to the Module (Page 3 & Page 4)

The module introduces the fundamental components and operations of a computer system.
The outline covers various concepts, including first-generation computers, computer architecture, basic computing concepts, registers, RAM, and more

First-Generation Computers & Architecture (Page 8)

The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was designed by John Mauchley and J. Presper Eckert.
ENIAC had 18,000 vacuum tubes and 1,500 relays.
It weighed 30 tons and consumed 140 kW of power.
ENIAC had 20 registers, capable of holding 10-digit decimal numbers.
Programming involved setting up 6000 multi-position switches and connecting sockets.
ENIAC was built around 1946.

First-Generation Computers & Architecture (Page 9)

The Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC) is the successor to ENIAC.
John von Neumann designed an improved version of EDVAC.
Von Neumann realised programming computers with numerous switches and cables was inefficient.
His design allowed programs and data to be stored in computer memory, making the system more flexible.
He proposed replacing the decimal arithmetic with parallel binary arithmetic.

First-Generation Computers & Architecture (Page 10)

The basic design of EDVAC, now called the von Neumann machine, is still used in many computers.
It was used in the first stored-program computer EDSAC and is still used a half a century later.

First-Generation Computers & Architecture (Page 11)

Computer memory consisted of 4096 words with each word holding 40 bits.
Each word held two 20-bit instructions or a 40-bit signed integer.
Instructions involved 8 bits for instruction type and 12 bits to specify one of the 4096 memory words.
The ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) and the control unit form the "brain" of the computer.
The ALU and the control unit are combined on a single chip called the CPU.

Basic Computing Concepts (Pages 13-16)

The microprocessor, or CPU, is the central processing unit.
A computer processes input instructions and data.
Instructions include addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
The result of these operations form an output stream.
The fundamental operations include reading, writing, and modification of data stored in computer memory.
These functions rely on computer components like storage, ALU, and a bus system.

Basic Computing Concepts (Page 17)

Computers need a storage structure to hold numbers that can be accessed for reading and writing.

Basic Computing Concepts (Page 18)

The ALU performs arithmetic operations upon the input data.
Numbers are transferred to the ALU from memory through the data bus.
The result of the operations is returned to memory via the ALU's output port.

Basic Computing Concepts (Page 19)

The bus serves as a communication network to move data between ALU and memory.
Data that moves between the ALU and memory, and instructions also use the bus.
The instruction bus is specifically for transferring instructions.

Basic Computing Concepts (Page 20)

The ALU processes data according to specific steps and instructions.
Steps for performing addition include obtaining input numbers, performing the addition, and storing the result into memory.
Modern CPUs perform these types of operations billions of times a second.

The Register File (Pages 21-25)

Computers use specialized storage locations, registers, close to the ALU.
Registers are faster than memory and provide immediate access to data required in computation.
The x86 architecture, for instance, utilizes a register file with 8 registers.
Operations in the ALU, such as addition, use registers for input operands and results.

The Register File (Page 26)

Instructions and data exist in specific registers and memory is used to store these variables and instructions.
Operations in a simple computer can involve 4 registers A, В, С, D, to store numbers and carry out arithmetic operations.
These registers will store the result of operations and overwrite previous values.

The Register File (Page 27)

A simple description of the process of performing addition of two numbers stored in registers A and В into register C.

RAM (Pages 28-30)

RAM, or Random Access Memory, is a large storage space.
It handles data that is not stored in registers.
A portion of data is moved to registers for easier processing by the ALU.
Main memory handles data which is not immediately required by the ALU, it is transferred to the registers temporarily for calculations.

RAM (Page 31)

How a computer performs arithmetic operations involving main memory and registers (using the CPU and ALU).
Arithmetic operations involve reading two operands from main memory and loading them into registers.
The ALU adds values from two source registers and store the result in the destination register.
Then the destination register is stored in main memory.

RAM (Page 32)

The user needs to control data flow to and from main memory and CPU registers to manage the execution of operations.
Instructions for memory operations also need to be given to the CPU and not only the ALU.

A Closer Look At The Code Stream (Pages 35&36)

Computer programs are sequences of instructions, which are often in binary formats.
These command all the computer’s actions, not just the ALU actions alone.
Instructions encompass more than simple arithmetic, like operations on data and memory.
Instructions can be categorized into arithmetic instructions (like addition, subtraction) and memory access instructions (like loading from memory and storing to memory).

A Closer Look At The Code Stream (Page 37)

DLW-1 is a hypothetical computer for illustration.
It has 4 registers: A, B, C, D.
It has 256 memory cells, numbered from 0 to 255, to store variables.

DLW-1's Arithmetic Instruction Format (Page 39)

Instruction format in DLW-1 involves an opcode, that specifies the operation, and source registers and a destination register. This format is often written in hexadecimal.

DLW-1's Memory Instruction Format (Page 39)

Memory access instructions, like load and store, specify the memory location to read data from, or the location to write data to.

Example DLW-1 Program (Page 41)

Example code and its binary machine language equivalents, and a program for adding two integers stored in different memory locations.

Register Vs Immediate (Pages 42-44)

Programmers need to know memory locations to access and modify data.
It is often impractical to access memory locations directly due to billions of possible addresses.
Modern computers use the concept of addressing data and instructions stored in registers that can be used as temporary storage to access memory locations quickly.

Register Vs Immediate (Page 45)

Immediate values are used instead of memory locations directly.

Register Vs Immediate (Pages 45-47)

Number 12 and 14 are stored in register D, and instructions to access and operate on this data and store the output in a memory location, using registers and immediate values.

Relative Addressing (Page 49)

Data segments are blocks of memory cells.
Relative addressing is a method to find memory cells within a segment using an offset from a base address.
Memory cell addresses can be obtained using the formula: address = base address + offset.

DLW-1 Program With Use Of Relative Addressing (Page 51)

Instructions like load and store use relative addressing and calculating memory addresses
Instructions specify the base address and offset and calculate the memory address to access data in memory

Mechanics of Program Execution (Pages 53-55)

Instructions must be represented in binary notation (opcodes).
A binary code, opcode, is a unique group of binary numbers that maps to a computer instruction.
3-bit opcodes represent different operations for instructions.
The complete numerical code for every instruction uses many bits to represent commands, opcodes, location and data in the machine language

Binary Encoding of Arithmetic Instructions (Pages 57-62)

Arithmetic instructions are expressed in a specific binary format: mode,opcode, source1,source2, destination.
A 0 for mode gives the register type format.
An instruction can specify the operation to be performed, which registers hold the input data and where the result should be placed.
The binary codes and formats change depending upon whether they are register-type or immediate-type operations

Binary Encoding of Arithmetic Instructions With Immediate Value (Pages 63-67)

Arithmetic operations using immediate values, numbers directly embedded into an instruction.
Instructions specify a numerical operand and operation, and destination registers.

Binary Encoding of Memory Access Instructions (Pages 68-73)

Memory access instructions involve loading and storing data from memory to registers, and vice versa.
They use both register-type instructions and immediate values, specifying registers or addresses in memory.

The Store Instruction (Page 75)

The binary format for a store instruction is almost identical to that of a load instruction, but the destination field specifies the register where the data will be stored.

Example Programs (Page 79)

Assembly language instructions and corresponding machine language codes are shown for common operations like loading data, performing addition, and storing results.

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This quiz will assess your understanding of the basic components and operations of a computer system. It includes topics such as first-generation computers, computer architecture, and fundamental computing concepts. Prepare to explore the details of the ENIAC and its significance in computer history.

Basic Computer System Architecture - DA 107

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