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Processing Hardware

Turning data into something you can

use.
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The Microprocessor
 Possibly the most
important invention of
the 20th century
 More than 15 billion
microprocessors and
microcontrollers on
earth today
 in many kinds of
appliances, not just
computers
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Microprocessor Chip
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How data and programs are

represented in the Computer
 Computer processing is
similar to electricity
• On or off – two states
• Binary system – 0 or 1
 Computer capacity denoted
by bits and bytes
• Bit (binary digit) – 0 or 1
• Byte – a group of 8 bits
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Binary Coding Schemes

 ASCII
• 8 bit scheme
 EBCDIC
• 8 bit scheme
 Unicode
• 16 bit scheme
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How many values can 1 bit

represent?

0 1
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How many values can 2 bits

represent?

00 10
01 11
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How many values can 3 bits

represent?
000 100
001 101
010 110
011 111
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How many values can 4 bits

represent?

0000 0100 1000 1100

0001 0101 1001 1101
0010 0110 1010 1110
0011 0111 1011 1111
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How many values can x bits

represent?
 1 bit can represent 2 values
 2 bits can represent 4 values
 3 bits can represent 8 values
 4 bits can represent 16 values
 5 bits can represent 32 values
x
 X bits can represent 2 values
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Parity Bit (or check bit)

 Errors can occur in data transmission
 Extra bit can be used to check for errors
 Even or odd parity schemes

In an even parity scheme, the 9th bit

would make the number of 1s even:
000101000
000100001
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Machine language
 Machine language is for writing
instructions that the computer can
understand (not data)
 Specific to each computer – Mac, PC, etc
 Language translators are needed to
translate higher level code to low-level
machine language
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Computer Capacity
 Bit
 Byte - 8 bits
 Kilobyte - about 1000 bytes
 Megabyte - about 1000 kilobytes
 Gigabyte - about 1000 megabytes
 Terabyte - about 1000 gigabytes
 Petabyte - about 1000 tarabytes
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Concept Check
 What is the binary system?
 Define bits, bytes, kilobytes, megabytes,
gigabytes, terabytes, and petabytes.
 Distinguish among ASCII, EBCDIC, and
Unicode.
 What is a parity bit?
 What is machine language?
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Processing
 How does information get processed?
 The Processor works with
 Main memory (RAM) and
 Registers to carry out the processing.
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RAM & Processor

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The Processor
 In mainframes, along with main memory,
known as the CPU (central processing
unit)
 In microcomputers (PCs), known as the
microprocessor
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The Processor
 The processor consists of the ALU
(Arithmetic Logic Unit) and Control Unit
PROCESSOR

ALU Control Unit

RAM
Registers Registers

The processor communicates with RAM via a bus

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The Processor
Control Unit The Control Unit tells the rest of
Registers
the computer what to do when.

ALU The Arithmetic Logic Unit does the

Registers
fast calculations, and sends the
results to RAM
RAM
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Control Unit ALU

Registers
Registers Registers

 Control Unit and ALU contain registers

 Very high speed temporary memory
 Holds data to be processed immediately
 Stuff in RAM will be used “in a little bit”
 Different types of registers, some hold data,
some hold an instruction, some hold a result
of a calculation
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RAM
Main Memory
 Primary storage – Random Access
 Holds data for processing, holds instructions,
holds already processed data
 Its contents are temporary, volatile
 Save your work frequently
 Capacity is different in different computers –
today, 128 MB or 256 MB or even more
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The Machine Cycle

 Instruction cycle
• Control unit fetches an instruction from RAM
• Control unit decodes the instruction
 Execution cycle
• The ALU executes the instruction
• The ALU stores the results in a register
 Processor’s speed determined by the time it
takes to complete a machine cycle
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Processing speed
 Processing speed often measured in
megahertz (MHz)
 1 MHz = 1 million machine cycles per second
 Now, processors are measured in hundreds of
MHz or even gigahertz (GHz) 867 MHz or
1.2 GHz, for example
 1 GHz = 1,000 Mhz
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Microprocessor Chips
 Intel-type chips for PCs
• Made by Intel Corp, Advanced
Micro Devices (AMD), Cyrix, DEC,
etc.
• Commonly called Wintel
• Pentium III, P4, Intel Celeron
 Motorola–type chips for
Macintoshes
• Made by Motorola
• G3 and G4
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ROM – another type of memory

 Read-Only Memory
 Unlike RAM, non-volatile
 Contains the BIOS (Basic Input Output
System)
 Contains just enough information to boot
the computer
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Other kinds of memory

 Cache
• Specialized part of RAM
• Faster and more expensive than RAM
• Speeds up the computer
 VRAM
• Video RAM – used to store things for display
on the monitor
• Speeds up the graphics
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Other kinds of memory

 Flash
• Removable memory for
portable computers & digital
cameras
• Non-volatile
• Credit-card sized
inserted into a slot,
or smaller
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Ports
 Connect peripheral devices to a computer
by plugging into a port
• Parallel port – 8 bits transmitted
simultaneously
• Serial port – send bits one at a time
• Video port – for the monitor
• SCSI – fast – can daisy-chain devices
• Infrared – a type of wireless connection
• USB – new standard, fast, up to 127 devices
• Firewire – new, very fast
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Ports
 Parallel port – used to be for
printers
 Serial port - maybe mice, modem
 Video port - monitor
Parallel and
serial ports –
going out of style
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SCSI port

SCSI – also
on it’s way out
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Infrared Ports
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Infrared port
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USB
 Universal Serial Bus - new, fast, replacing
parallel ports, SCSI ports, and other kinds
of ports
 Supports hot plugging - plug it in and it
works
 Can hook up 127 devices
 Printers, scanners, hard drives, keyboard,
mouse, zip drive, CD drives, cameras, etc
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USB
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Firewire
 fast - 30x faster than USB
 makes video editing
possible
 Hard Drives, CD drive,
DVD drive, video cameras
 Can supply power to a
device as well
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Firewire
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Firewire
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Vocabulary
 Arithmetic/logic  Control unit
unit (ALU)  EBCDIC
 ASCII  Firewire
 Binary system  Flash memory cards
 Bit  Infrared
 Bus  Intel-type chip
 Byte  Integrated circuit
 Cache  Kilobyte (K, KB)
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Vocabulary cont.
 Machine language  Registers
 Megabyte (M, MB)  ROM (read-only)
 Microprocessor memory
 Motorola-type chips  SCSI
 Parallel port  Serial port
 Parity bit  Silicon
 Port  Unicode
 RAM (random access)  USB (Universal
memory Serial Bus)