Computer Architecture - Assignment 1

Computer Architecture - Assignment 1

Describe Von Neumann architecture and explain why it is important.

John von Neumann was then a world-renowned mathematician with publications in various areas of Mathematics and Mathematical Physics, visiting professor at Princeton University (1930-1933) and part since 1933, the body of researchers from the prestigious Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton. Among the many interests of von Neumann was the numerical solution of problems for which no known analytical solutions. He was captivated by the possibility of automating calculations and came into contact with some of the builders mentioned history. Until then all machines built until the early design EDVAC were programmed by external means such as punched cards, punched tapes, panels, connecting cables etc., and had very little memory to store the data and the intermediate results of calculations. Even so, the construction of the ENIAC, whose storage capacity was 20 decimal numbers 10 digits (700 bits), consumed more than 17,000 vacuum tubes. On June 30, 1945 John von Neumann published the First Draft of a Report on the EDIVAC, which established the paradigm of computer projects for several generations of machines. This architecture was known under the name "von Neumann architecture" (Von Newmann & Oxtoby, 1988).

Among other things included the concept of a stored program. John von Neumann was responsible for creating the code to be used (the basis for future code to be developed) on the ENIAC and began operating in 1943 and was fully completed in 1946, ending its operations in 1955 (Von Newmann & Oxtoby, 1988).

That is, the computer architecture that is characterized by the possibility of a digital machine to store your programs in the same memory space that the data can thus manipulate such programs.

The machine proposed by von Neumann includes the following components:

- A memory;

- An Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU);

- A Central Processing Unit (CPU), composed of several registers,

- A Control Unit (UC), whose function is to seek a program in memory, instruction per instruction, and then run it on the input data (Von Newmann & Oxtoby, 1988).

System bus is and why it is needed.

The bus is a group of wires to the motherboard; most data transfers and therefore is the basis of communication structures PC. Its speed can significantly affect the performance of your PC. It is designed to connect all components located outside the processor. On the motherboard there are two types of buses:

System bus that is connected to the microprocessor, is managed by a microprocessor circuit connects to the motherboard. At present, for it uses the acronym FSB (Front Side Bus). This is a peripheral bus that connects the processor (or the system bus) to the outside world. It ends with standardized connectors - slots.

FSB is inserted into the slot expansion board which connects to all PC peripherals. The connector is standardized as mechanically (shape and dimensions) or electrically (number of signals, their importance and electrical parameters). Bus slot and standardizes the interconnection of the main board with the surroundings. If you purchase a bus expansion card standard, you can ...