2. Organization and Structure of Modern Computer Systems
Modern computer systems are organized into functional blocks that work together to perform computations efficiently. It covers various architectures, including Von Neumann and Harvard, and discusses the components of the CPU, memory organization, I/O systems, and performance enhancements through parallelism and pipelining. The chapter highlights the advantages and disadvantages of these architectures in contemporary computing.
Sections
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What we have learnt
- Computer system organization is crucial for understanding hardware structure and communication.
- The Von Neumann and Harvard architectures differ significantly in their design and performance characteristics.
- Memory systems and I/O organization play vital roles in the performance of computer systems.
Key Concepts
- -- Computer System Organization
- The arrangement and interaction of hardware components within a computer system.
- -- Von Neumann Architecture
- A computer architecture design where a single memory space is used for both data and instructions, leading to potential performance bottlenecks.
- -- Harvard Architecture
- A computer architecture where separate memory spaces are utilized for data and instructions, allowing for parallel data access.
- -- System Buses
- Communication pathways in a computer that transfer data, addresses, and control signals between components.
- -- Pipelining
- A technique in which multiple instruction stages are overlapped to improve execution efficiency.
- -- Parallelism
- An approach to improve performance by executing multiple instructions or processes simultaneously.
Additional Learning Materials
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