Historical background

Lecture 04
 The First Generation: Vacuum Tubes
• ENIAC - background
– Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer
• Trajectory tables for weapons
– Started 1943
– Finished 1946
• Too late for war effort
– Used until 1955
• A decimal not binary machine
• Memory consists of 20 “accumulators”
– each capable of holding 10 digits
– A ring of 10 vacuum tubes representing each digit
– At any one time only one vacuum tube was in ON state representing
one of the ten digits
– Hard to program by setting switches manually
 ENIAC - details
• Decimal (not binary)
• 20 accumulators of 10 digits
• Programmed manually by switches
• 18,000 vacuum tubes
• 30 tons
• 15,000 square feet
• 140 kW power consumption
• 5,000 additions per second
 Moore’s Law
• Increased density of components
on chip
– Gordon Moore - cofounder of Intel
• Number of transistors on a chip will
double every year
• Since 1970’s development has
slowed a little
– Number of transistors doubles
every 18 months
– Cost of a chip has remained
almost unchanged
– Higher packing density means
shorter electrical paths, giving
higher performance
• Smaller size gives increased
flexibility
• Reduced power and cooling
requirements
Growth in CPU Transistor Count
• Fewer interconnections increases
reliability
 The von Neumann Model

• On the ENIAC, all programming was done at the digital logic

level
– Electronic, electrical engineers not by programmers
– Programming the computer involved moving plugs and wires.
– A different hardware configuration was needed to solve every
unique problem type
• Inventors of the ENIAC, conceived of a computer that could
store instructions in memory.
• The invention of this idea by a mathematician, John von
Neumann
– Stored-program computers have become known as von Neumann
Architecture systems

Configuring the ENIAC to solve a “simple” problem

required many days labor by skilled technicians.
 The von Neumann Model

• Today’s version of stored-program computers have the following

characteristics:
– Three hardware systems:
• A central processing unit (CPU)
• A main memory system
• An I/O system
– The capacity to carry out sequential instruction processing.
– A single data path between the CPU and main memory.
• This single path is known as the von Neumann bottleneck.
 The von Neumann Model

• This is a general
depiction of a von
Neumann system:
– System passes all
I/O through ALU
(accumulator)
• Known as von
Neumann
execution cylce

– These computers
employ a fetch-
decode-execute
cycle to run
programs
The von Neumann Model (fetch-decode-execute
cycle)
1. The control unit fetches the next instruction from memory
using the program counter to determine where the instruction
is located.
The von Neumann Model (fetch-decode-execute
cycle)

2. The instruction is decoded into a language that the ALU can

understand.
The von Neumann Model (fetch-decode-execute
cycle)

3. Any data operands required to execute the instruction are

fetched from memory and placed into registers within the
CPU.
The von Neumann Model (fetch-decode-execute
cycle)

4. The ALU executes the instruction and places results in

registers or memory.
 Non-von Neumann Models
• Conventional stored-program computers have undergone many
incremental improvements over the years.
• These improvements include:
– adding specialized buses, floating-point units, and cache memories,
to name only a few.
• But enormous improvements in computational power require
departure from the classic von Neumann architecture.
– Adding processors is one approach.
• In the late 1960s,
– high-performance computer systems were equipped with dual
processors to increase computational throughput.
• In the 1970s
– supercomputer systems were introduced with 32 processors
– Supercomputers with 1,000 processors were built in the 1980s.
– In 1999, IBM announced its Blue Gene system containing over 1
million processors.
 Non-von Neumann Models

• Parallel processing is only one method of providing increased

computational power.
• More radical systems have reinvented the fundamental concepts
of computation.
• These advanced systems include genetic computers, quantum
computers, and dataflow systems.
• At this point, it is unclear whether any of these systems will
provide the basis for the next generation of computers.
 von Neumann/Turing
• Stored Program concept
– Main memory storing programs and data
– ALU operating on binary data
– Control unit interpreting instructions from memory and
executing
– Input and output equipment operated by control unit
• With little exceptions all today’s computer have same
general structure and function and refers to as – von
Neumann machines
– Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies
• IAS, Completed 1952
 IAS - details
• Set of registers (storage in CPU)
– Memory Buffer Register
• Contains a word to store in memory
– Memory Address Register
• Address of memory to be read
– Instruction Register
• Contains 8 bit opcode being executed
– Instruction Buffer Register
• Holds instruction from memory
– Program Counter
• Address of next instruction from
memory
– Accumulator
• Holds temporary operands and results
of ALU operation
– Multiplier Quotient
• E.g multiplication of two 40 bit number
gives 80 bit number
– Most significant 40 bits in AC
– Least significant 40 bits in MQ
 Pentium Evolution
• 8080
– first general purpose microprocessor
– 8 bit data path to memory
– Used in first personal computer – Altair
• 8086
– much more powerful
– 16 bit machine
– 1 Mb addressable memory
– instruction cache, prefetch few instructions
– 8088 (8 bit external bus) used in first IBM PC
• 80286
– 16 M byte memory addressable
• 80386
– First 32 bit architecture machine
– Support for multitasking
 Pentium Evolution
• 80486
– sophisticated powerful cache and instruction pipelining
– built in maths co-processor
• Pentium
– Superscalar
• Multiple instructions executed in parallel
• Pentium Pro
– Increased superscalar organization
– branch prediction
– data flow analysis
– speculative execution
 Pentium Evolution (3)
• Pentium II
– MMX technology
– graphics, video & audio processing
• Pentium III
– Additional floating point instructions for 3D graphics
• Pentium 4
– Note Arabic rather than Roman numerals
– Further floating point and multimedia enhancements
• Itanium
– 64 bit
• See Intel web pages for detailed information on
processors
 Generations of Computer
• Vacuum tube - 1946-1957
• Transistor - 1958-1964
• Small scale integration - 1965 on
– Up to 100 devices on a chip
• Medium scale integration - to 1971
– 100-3,000 devices on a chip
• Large scale integration - 1971-1977
– 3,000 - 100,000 devices on a chip
• Very large scale integration - 1978 to date
– 100,000 - 100,000,000 devices on a chip
• Ultra large scale integration
– Over 100,000,000 devices on a chip
 Historical Development

• Moore’s Law (1965)

– Gordon Moore, Intel founder
– “The density of transistors in an integrated circuit will
double every year.”
• Contemporary version:
– “The density of silicon chips doubles every 18 months.”

But this “law” cannot hold forever ...

 Historical Development

• Rock’s Law
– Arthur Rock, Intel financier
– “The cost of capital equipment to build semiconductors
will double every four years.”
– In 1968, a new chip plant cost about $12,000.

At the time, $12,000 would buy a nice home in

the suburbs.
An executive earning $12,000 per year was
“making a very comfortable living.”
 Historical Development

• Rock’s Law
– In 2005, a chip plants under construction cost over
$2.5 billion.
$2.5 billion is more than the gross domestic
product of some small countries, including
Belize, Bhutan, and the Republic of Sierra
Leone.

– For Moore’s Law to hold, Rock’s Law must fall, or

vice versa. But no one can say which will give out
first.
 Introduction
• A computer system is made up from
– Hardware is the physical medium, for example:
• circuit boards, processors or keyboard
– Software is a computer program, for example:
• an operating system, an editor, a compiler
– Firmware is a combination of software and hardware.
Computer chips that have data or programs recorded on
them are firmware. These chips commonly include the
following:
• ROMs (read-only memory)
• PROMs (programmable read-only memory)
• EPROMs (erasable programmable read-only memory)
– Firmware means microcode.
• Microcode is generic word for is a generic word for representing
certain functions in programming. These functions have special
status and special representation.
 Microprocessor
• Microprocessor is an electronic circuit that functions as the
central processing unit (CPU) of a computer, providing
computational control.
– Microprocessors are also used in other advanced electronic systems,
such as automobiles, and jet airliners.
– Modern microprocessors incorporate transistors, in addition to other
components such as resistors, diodes, capacitors, and wires, all
packed into an area about the size of a postage stamp.
• Microcontrollers
– Microcontrollers integrate all of the components (control, memory,
I/O) of a computer system into one integrated circuit.
– Microcontrollers are intended to be single chip solutions for systems
requiring low to moderate processing power.
 Microprocessor vs. Microcontroller
Microprocessor Microcontroller
– CPU is stand-alone, • CPU, RAM, ROM, I/O and
RAM, ROM, I/O, timer are timer are all on a single chip
separate • fix amount of on-chip ROM,
– designer can decide on RAM, I/O ports
the amount of ROM, • for applications in which cost,
RAM and I/O ports. power and space are critical
– expansive • single-purpose
– versatility
– general-purpose
Quiz # 1

Time 10 mins
Max 10 marks
 Quiz
• In what ways are hardware and software different? In
what ways are they the same?
• Calculate following
– a) How many milliseconds (ms) are in 1 second?
– b) How many nanoseconds (ns) are in 1 millisecond?
– c) How many kilobytes are in 1 megabyte (MB)?
– d How many megabytes are in 1 gigabyte (GB)?
– e) How many bytes are in 20 megabytes?
 Answer to Q # 1
• In what ways are hardware and software different? In
what ways are they the same?
• Ans.
• Between hardware and software, hardware provides
more speed, software provides more flexibility.
Hardware and software are related through the
Principle of Equivalence of Hardware and Software.
They can solve problems equally, although solutions
are often easier in one versus the other.
 Answer to Q # 2
• a) How many milliseconds (ms) are in 1 second?
• b) How many nanoseconds (ns) are in 1 millisecond?
• c) How many kilobytes (KB) are in 1 gigabyte (GB)?
• d) How many kilobytes are in 1 megabyte (MB)?
• e How many megabytes are in 1 gigabyte (GB)?
• f) How many bytes are in 20 megabytes?
• Ans. Typically, time is measured in powers of 10, so we
have:
– a. 1,000
– b. 1,000,000
– c. 1,000,000 (or 230/210=220)
– d. 1,000 (or 220/210=210)
– e. 1,000 (or 230/220=210)
– f. 20,000,000 (or 20*220)