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Microprocessor and Interfacing

EEE 319

Lecture 3 (Computer Architecture and Buses)

Abdullah Bin Shams

Lecturer
EEE, BUBT
shams@bubt.edu.bd
Objective:

1. What is a computer?

2. Internal Organization of Computers.

3. Address bus, Data bus and Control bus.

4. CPU read and write operation using buses.

Section I What is a computer?

Computer is an electronic machine which can perform mathematical and logical


operations at speeds billions of times faster than human beings.

Every computer may be divided into logical units or sections. These are as follows:

I. Input Unit

This logical section of the computer takes the information or data from
various input devices and makes the information available to other units so
that it can be further processed. There are so many input devices such as
keyboard, mouse or pointing devices, disk and network connections,
scanner, video camera, microphones etc.

II. Output Unit

It takes processed information from the computer and sends it to various


output devices to make the information available for use outside the
computer. These information displayed on screen, print on paper, played
through audio speakers and video devices, sent to other computers through
network and magnetically recorded on disks and tapes.
III. Memory Unit

This is the rapid-access, relatively low capacity storage section of the


computer. It is also called temporary storage unit, Primary memory, random
access memory (RAM) or simply memory.

The main purpose of this unit is to take the information from input unit so
that the information may be made available for processing, and gives the
processed information to the output unit.

IV. Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU)

This unit performs Arithmetic calculations such as addition, subtraction,


multiplication and division. It also performs logical operations or decision
making operations such as compare two data, greater than, less than and so
on.

V. Central Processing Unit (CPU)

This is main part of computer and acts as a coordinator. It is also


responsible for supervision of all sections of operation. The CPU tells the
input unit when information should be read into the memory unit, and so on.

VI. Secondary Storage Unit

This is long-term, high capacity storage sections of the computer. All


programs or data are normally placed on secondary storage devices such as
hard disk drives until they are needed.

Information stored in secondary storage is to access long time than


information in primary memory. The cost per unit of secondary storage is
much less than the cost per unit of primary memory.
Section II Internal organization of a computer

Internal working of every computer can be broken down into three parts:

1. CPU (Central Processing Unit) The function of the CPU is to execute or


process information stored in the memory.

2. I/O devices Input and output devices such as keyboard and monitor
provide a means of communicating with the CPU.

3. Memory Stores user data or instructions for CPU usage.

4. BUS The CPU is connected to the memory and I/O devices through strips
of wire called a bus. The bus inside a computer carries information from
place to place.

There are three types of buses: address bus, data bus and control bus.

Inside a Computer
Section III Address bus, Data bus and Control bus

a. Address bus

For a device (memory or I/O) to be recognized by the CPU, it must be


assigned an address. The address given to a device must be unique; no two
or more devices can have the same address.

The CPU puts the address (in binary form) in the address bus and the
decoding circuit finds the device. Since CPU finds a device only to
communicate (input or output) using the address bus thus the address bus is
unidirectional.

The total number of memory locations addressable by the CPU is 2 X, where


x is the number of address bits/lines, regardless of the size of the data bus.

b. Data bus

Once the CPU locates a device using its unique address, the CPU uses the
data bus either to get data from that device (input, e.g. keyboard) or to send
data to it (output, monitor).

The data bus is bidirectional since it receives data from or carries data to a
device.

The power of a computer is related to the size of the data bus, since an 8-bit
data bus can send 1 byte of data at a time whereas a 16-bit data bus can send
2 byte which is twice as fast.

c. Control bus

The control bus is used by the CPU to provide read or write signals to the
device, hence it is unidirectional.
For example if the CPU wants to read data from a device (keyboard) it will
send a read signal through the control bus to the keyboard to read the user
input.

In contrast to output a data (picture), the CPU sends the data through the
data bus to the monitor, and then sends a write signal to it to portray the
picture on to the screen.

Section IV CPU read and write operations using buses

a. Write

CPU selects the output device by sending the device address along the
address bus.

Once the device is being selected the output data is loaded into the data bus
by the CPU.

Now the device is ready to output the data. The data is finally printed or
displayed by the device upon receiving the write signal from the CPU
through the control bus.

b. Read

CPU selects the input device by sending the device address along the
address bus.

Once the device is being selected the CPU sends the read signal to the
device through the control bus.

Upon receiving the read signal the device loads the data into the data bus
ready to be picked up by CPU.

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