Week-3 & 4

The System Unit

 Mother Board
 CMOS, BIOS
 Processor
 Machine Cycle
 System Clock
 Multi-Core Processor
 Basic Unit of Measurement
 Data Representation
 Memory
 RAM
 System Unit
 The System Unit is a case which system unit

is just like a box made up of a metal

or plastic.
This casing actually contain the
electronic components of a computer
used to process data.
 The casing is some time called Chassis
 The most important component of this system unit
System box is Mother Board.
system unit
All the components are then installed
on this Mother Board. system unit

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 The System Unit
 What are common components inside the system unit?
 Processor power supply drive bays

 Memory
 Adapter cards processor

 Sound card memory

 Modem card ports

 Ports
 Drive bays
 Power supply sound card

modem card video card

network card

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 Mother Board adapter cards
 It is the main circuit board of processor chip

the system unit.

 It is the centralized platform
where all the hardware components
of a computer are connected. memory chips
 Many electronic components are
attached to the mother board,
others are built-in on it.
 The processor chips,
memory chips & the other
components on the motherboard
memory slots

consist one or more chip’s. Expansion

slots for
adapter cards motherboard

Most chip’s are not bigger than one-half inch square.

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 CMOS, BIOS
 Each and every Motherboard has a small battery cell “CMOS
memory”.
 It gives to Motherboard a small amount of power to remember
the settings such as hardware configurations, date and time etc

 BIOS is kind of software which holds the most important data

for machine.
 It informs the PC about the compatibility of Motherboard with
different hardware components such as CPU etc…
 It is the most important component which resides in the ROM
CHIP (Read Only Memory) of the Motherboard.

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 Mother Board (Cont’d)
 Small piece of semi-conducting material on which integrated
dual inline
circuits are etched packages (DIP)
holds memory
 Two types of packaging for processor chips

and memory chip’s on desktop computers

motherboard
 PGA
 It holds a larger number of pins,

these pins are mounted on the

surface of the package.
 DIP pin grid
array (PGA)
 It consist two parallel rows of package
holds processor
downward pointing pins that chips

attached to the circuit board.

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 Processor
 The Processor is also called Central Processing Unit (CPU).
 All the CPUs looks very similar, but they are different in the way,
they have different numbers of pins and different layouts.

“Central Processing Unit (CPU) is an electronic device that interprets

and carries out the instructions that operates the computer.

 The processor significantly impact over all computing power &

manages most of computer operations.
 On larger computers, such as Mini or Mainframe computers, the
various functions performed by the processor extend over many
separate chips and often on multiple circuit boards.
 On a personal computer, all function of the processor usually are on
a single chip.
 Some computer manufacturer use the term Microprocessor which
refers to a personal computer chip.
 Most PC’s today use processors manufactured by IntEL, AMD etc..
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Processor (Cont’d)

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 Processor (Cont’d)
 The combination of Arithmetic Logic Unit and Control Unit is
called as Central Processing Unit (CPU). OR The two main parts
of CPU are ALU & CU.

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 Processor (Cont’d)
 ARITHEMATIC LOGIC UNIT (ALU)
 This component of the computer is responsible for the actual
processing.
 This component is capable to perform all types of arithmetic
operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division etc.
 Also it is capable to perform logical operations such as AND,
OR etc. it is capable of comparison as well.
 The ALU is connected to a set of registers—small & faster
memory areas in the CPU, which hold data and program
instructions while they are being processed.

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 Processor (Cont’d)
 Registers are the part of the processor, not a part of memory
or storage devices.
 It contain different type of registers, each with a specific
storage functions. E.g. General purpose registers used for
arithematic operations & data movement. AX, BX, CX, DX
 Register function includes
 Storing the location from where an instruction is fetched,

 Storing the location while the CU encode/decode it,

 Storing data while the ALU compute it and

 Storing the results after a calculation.

 Today, most PCs have 32-bit registers, mean the CPU can
process four bytes of data at one time.
 Register sizes are rapidly growing to 64 bits.
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 Processor (Cont’d)
 ALU Operations List

Arithmetic Logical
Operations Operations
+ Add = , ≠ equal to, not equal to

− Subtract >, > greater than, not greater than

x Multiply <, < less than, not less than

÷ Divide ≥ , ≥ greater than or equal to,
not greater than or equal to
^ Raise by a power ≤ , ≤ less than or equal to,
not less than or equal to

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 Processor (Cont’d)
 CONTROL UNIT (CU)
 This unit is responsible for the overall supervision of the
computer system.
 It does not perform the actual processing but by reading and
interpreting the instructions contained in a program, Control Unit
(CU) directs other unit of the system to perform a specific task.
 Control unit (CU) behaves like a traffic police instructor. It
manages the functions performed by different parts of computer.
 It controls and coordinates the entire computer system, just the
brain directs the human body.
 It is responsible to accept data from input device and send it to
the memory, from memory to ALU, finally CU sent back the
results and store in the memory, until the results are released to
an output device.
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 Machine Cycle
 The CPU follows a set of steps-called a machine cycle-for each
instruction it carries out.
 By using a technique called pipelining, many CPUs can process more
than one instruction at a time.
 Four operations of the CPU comprise a machine cycle
Step 1. Fetch
Obtain program
instruction or data item
from memory

Step 2.
Memory
Decode
Translate
Step 4. Store
instruction into
Write result to memory
commands
Processor
ALU Step 3. Execute Control Unit
Carry out command

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 System Clock
 Controls timing of all computer operations
 Generates regular electronic pulses, or ticks, that set
operating pace of components of system unit

Pace of system
clock is clock speed
Most clock speeds are Processor speed can
Each tick in the gigahertz (GHz) also be measured in
is a range (1 GHz = one millions of instructions
clock cycle per second (MIPS) or in FLOPs
billion ticks of system
clock per second)

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 Heat Sink
 Heat sink—component
with fans that cools
heat sink fan

processor

heat sink

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 Parallel Processing
 Using multiple
Control Processor
processors
simultaneously to
execute a program
faster
 Requires special Processor 1 Processor 2 Processor 3 Processor 4
software to divide Memory Memory Memory Memory
problem and bring
results together

Results combined

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 Multi-Core Processor
 A Multi-Core Processor is a processing system composed of two or
more independent cores. The cores are typically integrated onto a
single integrated circuit die(known as a chip multiprocessor or CMP).
 Core
 Basic processing area of a computer processor
 Die
 A die in the context of integrated circuits is a small block of
semiconducting material, on which a given functional circuit is
fabricated.
 A medium-scale integrated circuit die

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 Multi-Core Processor (Cont’d)

 A Dual-Core and Core 2 Duo Processor contains two cores, and a

Quad-Core Processor contains four cores.
 A Multi-core processor implements multiprocessing in a single physical
package.
 Cores in a multi-core device coupled together tightly.
 Cores may or may not share caches.
 Dual Core and Core 2 Duo’s are both dual core processor.
 Core2 duo only takes advantage because
 The Core 2 Duo has the same L2 cache but it has more cache size than
a Dual core. However,
 There are architectural changes to the silicon that give the Core 2 Duo
more sophisticated processing.
 The single- and dual-core models are single-die, whereas the quad-core
models comprise two dies, each containing two cores, packaged in a
multi-chip module.

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 Basic Units Of Measurement
 BIT
 BInary digiT
 Smallest unit of measurement
 Two possible values 0 & 1

ON or OFF

BYTE

8 bits

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 Data Representation
 Most computers are digital
 Recognize only two
discrete states: on or off
 Use a binary system to
recognize two states
 Use Number system with
two unique digits: 0 and 1,
called bits (short for
binary digits)

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 Data Representation (Cont’d)

 Eight bits grouped together as a unit

 Provides enough different combinations of 0s and 1s
to represent 256 individual characters
 Numbers
 Uppercase
and lowercase
letters
 Punctuation
marks

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 Data Representation (Cont’d)

 ASCII—American Standard Code for Information Interchange

 EBCDIC—Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
 Unicode—coding scheme capable of representing all
world’s languages

ASCII Symbol EBCDIC

00110000 0 11110000
00110001 1 11110001
00110010 2 11110010
00110011 3 11110011

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 Data Representation (Cont’d)

 How is a letter converted to binary form and back?

Step 1. Step 2.
An electronic signal for the
The user presses
the capital letter capital letter D is sent to the
system unit.
D (shift+D key)
on the keyboard.

Step 4. Step 3.
After processing, the binary The signal for the capital letter D
code for the capital letter D is is converted to its ASCII binary
converted to an image, and code (01000100) and is stored in
displayed on the output device. memory for processing.

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 Basic Units Of Measurement
(Processor And Memory Speed)
 Millisecond (ms) – a thousandth of a second (1/1,000 = 10-3)
 Microsecond (µs) - a millionth of a second (1/1,000,000 = 10-6)
 Nanosecond (ns) – a billionth of a second (1/1,000,000,000 = 10-9)

 Large Units Of Measurement (Memory, Storage)

 Note: powers of two are used because computer memory and
storage are based on the basic unit (bit).
 Kilobyte (KB) – a thousand bytes (1,024 = 210)
 Megabyte (MB) -1,024 KB - a million (1,048,576 = 220)
 Gigabyte (GB) –1,024 MB - a billion (1,073,741,824 = 230)
 Terabyte (TB) – a trillion (1,099,511,627,776 = 240)

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 Memory
 The electronic component which provides storage capability to a
computer is called Memory.
 Memory contains one or more sets of
Seat #2B4 Seat #2B3
chips that store data/program
instructions need processing,
either temporarily or permanently.
 All the computers which are used
today needs memory or storage capability.
 The CPU accesses each location
in memory by using a unique number,
called the memory address.
 Each byte stored
in unique location
called an address,
similar to addresses
on a passenger train

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 Memory (Cont’d)

 The are two types of Memory

 Random Access Memory
 Read Only Memory

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 Random Access Memory
 RAM is also called volatile memory and Keeps the information
for a shorter period of time because RAM Lost information if
powered off or the computer is shutdown.
 RAM store data or instructions, the computer then uses these
instructions to perform any processing work.
 The contents of RAM change rapidly and often.
 Typical ranges from Mega Bytes to Giga Bytes
 Random Access means direct access to any part of memory
Memory chips that can be
read from and written
to by processor
Most RAM is
Also called
volatile, it is lost
main memory
when computer’s
or primary
power is
storage
turned off
The more RAM a
computer has, the
faster it responds
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How do program instructions transfer in and out of RAM?
RAM Step 1. When you start the computer, certain
operating system files load into RAM from the
Operating system Operating system hard disk. The operating system displays the user
instructions interface interface on the screen.

Step 2. When you start a word processing

Word processing program, the program’s instructions load into
Word processing RAM from the hard disk. The word processing
program program, along with the Web Browser and certain
program window
instructions operating system instructions are in RAM. The
word processing program window is displayed on
the screen.
RAM
Step 3. When you quit a program, such as the
Web browser, its program instructions are
removed from RAM. The Web browser no longer
is displayed on the screen.
Web browser program
instructions are Web browser
removed from RAM window no longer is
displayed on
desktop
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 Where does Memory Reside?
dual inline memory module

 Resides on small
circuit board called
memory module
memory chip memory slot
 Memory slots on
motherboard hold
memory modules

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