Professional Documents
Culture Documents
AICT001-3-2-CSA
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
Students Particulars
Intake: UCDF1509ICT(SE)
Group No: 4
Total Number of Pages: 32
Total Word Count: 2998
Name Student ID TM
Student 1 Group Leader CHAN KAR KENG TP039974
Particulars
2 Member MOHD IMRAN BIN SAZALI TP039793
3 Member TAN MEI LIN TP039447
Lecturers Use only
Marks
Marks
Group (50%) Allocated Total / Grading
Obtained (%)
(%)
Research 20
Summary and Conclusion 15
Documentation 10
References 5
Individual (50%)
Student #1 Name: CHAN KAR KENG
Presentation 10
1 Analysis 20
Reflection 20
Student #2 Name: MOHD IMRAN BIN SAZALI
Presentation 10
2 Analysis 20
Reflection 20
Student #3 Name: TAN MEI LIN
Presentation 10
3 Analysis 20
Reflection 20
Table of Contents
Abstract...................................................................................................................................1
Introduction............................................................................................................................2
Principles of Mobile Computers............................................................................................3
Technologies Behind the Success of Mobile Computers......................................................3
Classifications of Mobile Computer.....................................................................................3
Importance and Popularity of Mobile Computers.................................................................4
Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Computers..........................................................4
Advantages.......................................................................................................................5
Disadvantages..................................................................................................................5
Specifications of Samsung Gear S2 3G.................................................................................5
CPU Specification, Features and General Architecture.........................................................5
Instructions Set and Registers...............................................................................................6
Memory Architecture............................................................................................................9
Implementation Issues........................................................................................................10
Instruction Pipelining.....................................................................................................10
Input/ Output Specifications...............................................................................................11
I/O Hardware..................................................................................................................11
Programmed I/O and Direct Access Memory..................................................................11
Interrupt Driven I/O........................................................................................................12
Similarities and Differences Between Architecture of This Mobile Computer and The
General Computer Architecture..........................................................................................12
Limitations of Mobile Computing.......................................................................................14
Future of Mobile Computing...............................................................................................15
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................16
References.............................................................................................................................17
Appendices............................................................................................................................20
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 1
Abstract
This is a report of the research on mobile computing and a selected mobile computer,
the Samsung Gear S2 3G. The principles of mobile computing such as technologies behind
the success, classifications, importance and popularity, and advantages and disadvantages
of mobile computers are covered in this research. Besides, further research on the selected
device on its CPU specifications, features and general architecture, instruction set and
registers, memory architecture, implementation issues, I/O specifications, similarities and
differences between architecture of selected device and Von Neumann computer
architecture were documented. The limitation of existing mobile computing is explored and
future of mobile computing is predicted before this report is concluded.
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 2
Introduction
Mobile computing technologies had evolved rapidly since the launch of the first
commercial portable cellular phone, 15.6 inches Motorola DynaTAC in 1983. Smartwatches
and smart glasses were prototyped and are commercially available in the market. Mobile
computing emphasizes on portability of a physical computer system. A device which
possesses portable physical design, allows wireless transmission and computation of data is
known as a mobile computer.
Among various existing mobile computers, the selected mobile computer is the
Samsung Gear S2. Announced in August 2015 and released in October of the same year, it is
one of the latest smartwatches available in the market. The reason being it is chosen is that
wearable devices, including smartwatches is becoming a new trend for technology hobbyists
and consumers. The specifications, features as well as general architecture of Samsung
Gear S2 will be discussed, and will be compared to Von Neumann computer architecture
later in this research.
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
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The Input/ Output (I/O) devices for a mobile computer were different years ago,
mobile phone used to have Colour STN (CSTN) screen as display. Today, the most common
display implemented in mobile phone is a touch screen, which act as both input and output
devices.
The mobility of a computer device greatly depends on its connectivity. For cellular
communication once supported only analogue data transmission in its First Generation (1G),
has advanced to Fourth Generation (4G) that supports various types of data transmission with
significantly higher speed and capacity. Wi-Fi and WiMAX technology has enabled users to
connect to Internet wirelessly; while Bluetooth and Near Field Communication (NFC)
technology providing short range data transmission.
Most of todays mobile devices have built-in embedded sensors that provides raw
data for processing and utilizing. Examples of these sensors are Global Positioning System
(GPS) module, gyroscope and, fingerprint scanner and heart rate sensor. With the help of
these sensors, mobile devices are achieving more than ever before.
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 4
software used for the smartphones includes Googles Android, Apples iOS, and Nokias
Symbian.
Figure 1: Graph indicating number of global users of mobile computer and desktop
computer
This increase in popularity raises the question: How important mobile computers are
that will result in this boost of popularity? The portability of mobile computers is the main
catch; people are now able to carry along a computer in their hands. Thus, started to handle
most activities, regardless personal like purchasing and entertaining themselves with music
and dramas, or business activities such as advertising and marketing using their mobile
devices that is Internet-enabled.
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
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Advantages
One of the advantages of mobile computer is the enabling of Cloud Computing. One
can transmit and store files and documents on an online server rather than a hard drive.
Furthermore, these file and documents are accessible and editable despite timing and location
as long as one has access to Internet. Besides, to prevent data being exploited by
unauthorized personnel, one can have encryption on their stored data and even can wipe off
the data easily.
With cloud computing on the rise, telecommuting has become a common practice
among companies. It occurs where employees do not have to drive to a workplace, but works
from their home to have a healthier balance between life and work, thus encouraging
employees to work harder. A research from Pennsylvania State University has shown that
telecommuters are commonly less stressed.
Disadvantages
While mobile computing devices provides convenience in everyday lives, excessive
use might cause more harm than good. Mobile computing devices emits a form of
electromagnetic radiation, causing potential health issues. Common effects of the radiation
will eventually lead to increasing of memory lost and vulnerability to diseases. Brain tumours
known as Glioma and Benign were also reported in extreme cases.
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
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The CPU used in selected device is Samsung Exynos 3250. It is a dual core CPU
featuring clock speed up to 1 GHz and is built with semiconductor with physical size of
28nm. Its primary CPUs are ARM Cortex-A7 which are built based on Advanced Reduced
Instruction Set Computing Machine (ARM) architecture. The ARM architecture is one of
the modified Harvard architecture.
The Samsung Exynos 3250 is a low power consumption CPU which is suitable for
wearables. For Digital Signal Processing, The CPU has implemented ARM NEON general-
purpose SIMD (Simple Instruction, Multiple Data) that can accelerate multimedia and
signal processing algorithms. The additional features included in the CPU are ARM
TrustZone, a hardware-based system-wide security approach. The CPU is believed to have
been merged into the SoC, Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 with MSM8x26 series chipset as its
primary processor.
For multimedia data handling, Qualcomm Adreno 305 Graphic Processing Unit
(GPU) which is capable of up to 1080p High-definition (HD) video capture or playback,
photo-shooting of up to 13.5 Megapixel, and up to 1080p HD external display output is used.
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 7
The ARM consists of 2 instruction sets, the ARM instruction set and the Thumb
instruction set. The ARM instruction set has a load/ store structure, dividing instructions
into memory access and Arithmetic and Logical Unit (ALU) operations. Memory access
refers to the loading/ storing between memory and registers; whereas ALU operations refers
to loading/storing only between registers. The ARM instruction set uses 16x32-bit registers
file, with Program Counter (PC), stack pointer and link register included. The standardized
instruction width eases pipelining and decoding. For the Thumb instruction set, it is a
subset of ARM instruction set with instructions of 16 bits. Although with reduced sizes, the
instructions can be executed via equivalent 32-bit ARM instruction. The ARM CPU is able
to switch between the two instruction set easily.
ARM has a total of 37 registers, all of which are 32 bits long. There are 30 general-
purpose registers, 1 dedicated PC, 1 dedicated Current Program Status Register (CPSR)
and 5 dedicated Saved Program Status Registers (SPSR). Among the general-purpose
registers, 15 of them are User Visible Register (UVR) depending on current processor mode,
while the others are User Invisible Register (UIR). The set of UVR is r0-r12, Stack Pointer
(sr or r13) and Link Register (lr or r14). The PC (or r15) stores the address of instruction to
be executed. The CPSR holds the Application Program Status Registers (APSR) which
holds ALU status flags, the current processor mode, interrupt disable flags, current processor
state and execution state bits for the IT block. The SPSR instead stores the current value of
CPSR when an exception handling is happening, the stored data is then recovered after the
exception handling. An exception is an event that interrupts the normal flow of the execution
through a program, such as external interrupts or attempting to execute undefined instruction.
The ALU status flags contained in the APSR are N (Negative flag/ Sign flag), Z (Zero
flag), C (Carry flag) and V (oVerflow flag).
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 8
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 9
Memory Architecture
Re
gis
ter
Cache
Memory
Storage
The selected device has followed the memory hierarchy, it consists registers, caches,
memory and storage. As registers are already mentioned in the previous section, this section
will focus on the discussion of caches, memory and disks.
Cache, a type of Random Access Memory (RAM) which has faster access speed than
regular RAM. Cache memory can be integrated directly on the CPU chip or has a separate
connection interconnected with CPU. In the CPU of selected device, the cache memory is
separated into L1 Instruction cache, L1 Data cache and L2 cache. The on-chip L1 caches
are both 16KB/Core; while the off-chip L2 cache, implemented with Static RAM (SRAM),
has a total of 1024KB/Core.
Low Power Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic RAM (LPDDR SDRAM) is
considered as main memory rather than a normal DDR SDRAM for the selected device.
LPDDR2, that consumes even less power, featuring a memory capacity of 512MB and speed
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 10
of 533MHZ, is believed to have been integrated to the internal system of the selected device
as its main memory.
For storage, the device has a 4GB internal storage; however, external storage is not
supported. For the internal storage, suggested technology is the low power consumption
embedded Multi-Media Controller (eMMC). It is a type of NAND flash storage which is
soldered directly onto the SoC. Contrasting to volatile RAM memory, the eMMC memory is
non-volatile, which means that data is technically permanent.
Implementation Issues
Instruction Pipelining
Pipelining is a technology which overlaps the execution of instructions to reduce
overall required execution time, aiming to improve CPU processing performance. ARM
processor, as one of the RISC processor, has implemented pipelining to achieve a higher
speed of instructions flow.
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 11
I/O Hardware
I/O hardware are tangible devices that receive users input and present respective
output upon request.
The smartwatch is equipped with various type of sensors. Included are accelerometer
and gyroscope that senses orientation and rotation, heart rate sensor which detects users
pulse, barometer which can be used to forecast weather changes and others. The sensors used
were suspected to be manufactured by Freescale, Silicon Labs and DMT.
The main input and output component of the smartwatch is the touch screen. A user
operates the smartwatch mostly through the screen which will display the GUI of the installed
software. Other input and output components include the side buttons, bezel, microphone and
speaker.
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
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Similarities and Differences Between Architecture of This Mobile Computer and The
General Computer Architecture
The selected mobile computer is built based on modified Harvard architecture,
contrasting the general computer architecture or Von Neumann architecture. The
difference is that in Von Neumann architecture approach, data and instruction shared a single
unified memory unit and has only one bus connecting the memory unit to the CPU.
In the modified Harvard architecture, caches with higher access speed are used to
improve the data and instruction retrieval speed. Data and instruction are still stored in a
unified memory unit but is loaded into caches beforehand for future retrieval. The separated
busses have enabled the data and instruction to be fetched simultaneously for higher
processing performance.
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 13
body dimensions of 51.8mm x 44mm x 13.4mm. The difference in size between the selected
device and the IAS machine is undeniably huge.
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 14
The first is the power consumption in devices. Mobile devices rely heavily on
rechargeable battery to operate. Most batteries failed to sustain the operation of devices for a
longer period of time, and that causes people to rapidly charge their devices with external
power source such as power banks. Besides, capacity of batteries tends to decrease over time
until its worst.
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 15
Firstly, it would be the battery endurance of mobile computer. A better endurance can
be achieved through battery with higher capacities and better power-efficient electronics.
Besides, the processing power can be improved for mobile computing in the future.
People have been and still are expecting mobile computers with processing power
competitive with desktop computers. The advancement in semiconductor technology will be
the contributing factor for this possible improvement
Future mobile computer can be designed and made to be even more portable
compared to existing devices. Smartwatches has led the begin of the trend of wearable
devices, future mobile computer can be based on this and implement feasible enhancement
for more portable devices.
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 16
Conclusion
In conclusion, along with the advancement of relevant technologies, mobile
computing is becoming more mature. Consumer should be aware of the impacts of mobile
computer, both the positives and negatives. The selected device, smartwatch Samsung Gear
S2 3G has implemented leading technologies to achieve more than the others. Although
limitations of the existing technology were found, this technology could have a future with
endless possibilities.
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 17
References
Andi (2014) What is Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) And How Does It Affect Us? West
Florida Components. [Online] Available from:
https://www.westfloridacomponents.com/blog/what-is-electromagnetic-interference-emi-and-
how-does-it-affect-us/. [Accessed: 16 September 2016]
Graphiq Inc. (2016) Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 MSM8226 Specs and Reviews. [Online]
Available from: http://system-on-a-chip.specout.com/l/449/Qualcomm-Snapdragon-400-
MSM8226. [Accessed: 27 August 2016]
Graphiq Inc. (2016) Samsung Exynos 3250 Specs, Reviews, Ratings. [Online] Available from:
http://system-on-a-chip.specout.com/l/460/Samsung-Exynos-3250. [Accessed: 27 August
2016]
Hoffman, C. (2015) How Do You Know When Its Time to Replace Your Battery? [Online]
Available from: http://www.howtogeek.com/216934/how-do-you-know-when-its-time-to-
replace-your-battery/. [Accessed: 18 September 2016]
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 18
I/O Techniques (n.d.) Interrupt Driven I/O I/O Techniques. [Online] Available from:
http://inputoutput5822.weebly.com/interrupt-driven-io.html. [Accessed: 3 September 2016]
Joan., B. (2010) Difference Between DMA and PIO | Difference Between. [Online] Available
from: http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-dma-and-pio/.
[Accessed: 3 September 2016]
Lemieux, Joe (2016) Introduction to ARM thumb | Embedded. [Online] Available from:
http://www.embedded.com/electronics-blogs/beginner-s-corner/4024632/Introduction-to-
ARM-thumb. [Accessed: 27 August 2016]
Qualcomm (2016) Samsung Gear S2 puts a new spin on the connected smartwatch |
Qualcomm. Available from:
https://www.qualcomm.com/news/snapdragon/2015/09/02/samsung-gear-s2-puts-new-spin-
connected-smartwatch. [Accessed: 27 August 2016]
Qualcomm (2016) Snapdragon 400 Mobile Processor with Dual-Core | Qualcomm. [Online]
Available from: https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon/processors/400.
[Accessed: 25 August 2016]
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
AICT001-3-2-CSA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE PAGE 19
The National Museum of American History (n.d.) IAS Computer | National Museum of
American History. [Online] Available from:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_334741. [Accessed: 3
September 2016]
Vinson, F. (2013) Top 10 Reasons Why Mobile Technology is More Important than Ever.
[Online] Available from: http://localorganicrankings.com/top-10-reasons-why-mobile-
technology-is-more-important-than-ever/. [Accessed: 29 August 2016]
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
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Appendices
1. 9 Frequently Ask Questions (FAQ)
3. Gantt Chart
4. Meeting Minutes
5. Presentation Slides
UCDF1509ICT (SE)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. What is mobile computing?
o No, although the technology is very common in our daily lives, it is yet to be a
fully mature technology.
o Mobile computer is portable, which means it is possible for one to carry along
the mobile computer, unlike the non-portable desktop computer.
o Yes, there has been reports on potential health issues since the mobile devices
became more popular.
o A mobile device that is designed to be worn on the wrist, and usually pairs
with a smart phone to optimize its functionality.
o Based on current technologies, no. But this might change in the future as the
semiconductor technology advances.
1. 07-22-2016
2. 05-08-2016
3. 26-08-2016
4. 17-09-2016
5. 01-10-2016
Date: 22nd July 2016
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