Introduction
Chapter 1
Sections 1.1 – 1.3
Dr. Iyad F. Jafar
Outline
 Introduction
 History
 Classes of Computers
 Components of Computer
 Technology Trends
 Moore’s Law
 Elements of Computer Design
 What Will You Learn?
 A Sea of Change
2
Introduction
 The first use of the word "computer" was
recorded in 1613 in a book called "The yong mans
gleanings" by Richard Braithwait to refer to a
person who carries out calculations, or computations.
 The use of the word has evolved to refer to a
machine that carries out computations.
A computer is a general purpose device that can
be programmed to carry out a finite set of
arithmetic or logical operations.
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History
Slide Rule
Abacus
Mechanical Calculators
ELWAT Analog Computer
4
AKAT-1 Analog
Computer
History
Perf.
(adds/sec)
Memory Price
(1996 $)
1951 Univac 1 1000 124,500
1,900
48 KB
$4,996,749
1964 IBM
60
S360/50
10,000
500,000
64 KB
$4,140,257
1965
1976
1981
1996
PDP-8
8
Cray-1
58
IBM PC 1
Pentium 0.5
Pro 200
2009 Core 2
0.5
Duo E6850
500
60,000
150
500
330,000
166,000,000
240,000
400,000,000
4 KB
32 MB
256 KB
16 MB
$66,071
$8,459,712
$4,081
$4,400
400
18,000,000,000
8 GB
$500
2011 i7-870
400
90,000,000,000
16 GB
$500
Year Name
Size Power
(ft3) (watts)
0.5
Classes of Computers
 Desktop computers
 General purpose, variety of software
 Largest market in dollar terms
 Spans low-end to high-end systems
 The key point in the desktop market is to
optimize price-performance
 Server computers
 High capacity, performance, reliability
 Range from small servers to building-sized
 Most expensive and powerful
 Network based
 Embedded computers
 Hidden as components of systems
 Largest class of computers with widest
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range of applications
 Real-time performance is required
 Combine the optimal performance with
cost/power limitations
Processor Market
Millions of Computers
1200
Embedded
Desktop
Servers
1000
892
862
800
600
400
200
0
488
290
93
3
1998
7
1122
114
3
1999
135
4
2000
129
4
2001
131
5
2002
This chart does not include the low-end 8-bit and 16-bit embedded processors that
are everywhere
Components of Computer
Computer
Information
processing
and flow
Processor
Datapath
Devices
Memory
Control
Input
Output
Coordination
for proper
operation
Store
Programs
and Data
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Keyboard,
Mouse,
Scanner,
…
Printer,
Speaker,
monitor …
Components of Computer
 Inside the box
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Components of Computer
 Read Section 1.3
10
Components of Computer
 A Motherboard
11
Components of Computer
 Inside the Processor
 Cache memory
12
 Small fast SRAM memory for immediate access to data
Technology Trends
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Year
Technology
Relative performance/cost
1951
Vacuum tube
1
1965
Transistor
35
1975
Integrated circuit (IC)
900
1995
Very large scale IC (VLSI)
2,400,000
2005
Ultra large scale IC (ULSI)
6,200,000,000
 Increased capacity and performance
 Reduced cost
Moore’s Law
 Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors on
integrated circuits doubles every 18 to 24 months (exponential
growth)
 The capabilities of many digital electronic devices are strongly
linked to Moore's law: processing speed, memory capacity, All of
these are improving at (roughly) exponential rates as well
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Processor
Transistor count
Intel 4004
2,300
Intel 8008
3,500
Motorola 6809
9,000
Pentium II
7,500,000
AMD K6
8,800,000
Pentium III
9,500,000
Core 2 Duo
291,000,000
Core i7 (Quad)
731,000,000
Atom
47,000,000
8-core POWER7
1,200,000,000
32M L3
16-Core SPARC
1,000,000,000[3]
T3
10-Core Xeon
2,600,000,000
Westmere-EX
Six-core zEC12
2,750,000,000
62-Core Xeon Phi 5,000,000,000
Date
1971
1972
1978
1997
1997
1999
2006
2008
2008
Manufacturer
Intel
Intel
Motorola
Intel
AMD
Intel
Intel
Intel
Intel
Process
10 µm
10 µm
5 μm
0.35 µm
0.35 µm
0.25 µm
65 nm
45 nm
45 nm
Area
12 mm²
14 mm²
21 mm²
195 mm²
162 mm²
128 mm²
143 mm²
263 mm²
24 mm²
2010
IBM
45 nm
567 mm²
2010
Sun/Oracle
40 nm
377 mm²
2011
Intel
32 nm
512 mm²
2012
2012
IBM
Intel
32 nm
22 nm
597 mm²
Moore’s Law
Performance (SPEC Int)
10000
Intel Pentium 4/3000
DEC Alpha 21264A/667
DEC Alpha 21264/600
Intel Xeon/2000
1000
DEC Alpha 4/266
100
DEC AXP/500
DEC Alpha 5/500
DEC Alpha 5/300
IBM POWER 100
HP 9000/750
10
IBM RS6000
SUN-4/260
MIPS M2000
MIPS M/120
1
1987
1989
1991
1993
1995
Year
15
1997
1999
2001
2003
Moore’s Law
512M
256M
128M
1000000
64M
Kbit capacity
100000
16M
4M
10000
1M
256K
1000
64K
100
16K
10
1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002
Year of introduction
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Elements of Computer Design
Instruction Set Architecture
(ISA)
Computer Organization
Hardware Implementation
Computer Architecture
(Covers all aspects of computer design)
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Abstraction !
All what is needed to write
machine language programs
that run correctly. This
includes instructions, registers,
memory access, I/O,….
Includes the high-level aspects
of a computer design; memory
system, bus structure, and the
internal CPU design
Refers to the specifics of the
machine in terms of logic and
circuit design, and fabrication
and packaging technology.
What Will You Learn?
 Processor Architecture
 Instruction Set Architecture
 CPU Design
 Datapath
 Control
 Processor Performance
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A Sea of Change
 Technology is continuously changing!
 Will everything you learn in this course be
obsolete next year?
 NO! (at least not everything)
 Basic concepts stay the same
 CPU/Memory interface
 Instruction execution
 Instruction sets
 Memory hierarchy
 Even the details don’t change too fast
 Caches, Virtual memory, Pipelines all look similar to the way
they’ve always looked
 The technology changes, the concepts remain
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Further Reading
 The Sea of Change
 Section 1.6
 Manufacturing the AMD Optron X4
 Section 1.7
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