Architecture Of A Computer Flashcards
(18 cards)
What is inside a computer
Motherboard CPU Heatsink RAM Hard drive Solid State Drive (SSD) Expansion slots Video card Wi-Fi card Power Supply Unit ( PSU) GPU
What is inside the processor, the Central Processing Unit (CPU)?
Arithmetic Logic Unit
Internal Memory/ Immediate Access Store (IAS)
Control Unit (CU)
What does the CPU do?
The CPU processes everything from basic instructions to complex functions. It controls all input needs performs all calculations.
What does the Control Unit (CU) do?
Controls all other elements of the cpu ensuring they do what they should when they should.
- Controls the operation of the cpu and the other hardware components by following a program.
- Organises the storage and transfer of data by using internal memory and special registers
- Performs the Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle by using a register to step through instructions in sequence
What does the Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) do?
Performs calculations, comparisons, logical functions and bit-shift operations
What is the decoder?
A logic circuit that exists to take the binary representation of an instruction and imitate the execution of the appropriate instruction. Usually exists as a part of the control unit
What are registers and how many are there?
Registers are small pieces of memory located inside the CPU. There are 6 special registers.
What are the 3 main types of memory?
RAM, ROM and Cache
What is RAM?
RAM is random access memory
- Temporarily stores programs and data that are being used
- Can be changed
- The working memory of the computer
- Volatile
What is ROM?
ROM is read only memory
- Permanently stores the booting up part of the OS
- Non-volatile
- Contents cannot be changed
What is Cache?
Cache is fast access RAM placed close to the cpu
- Used for storing the most recently and most frequently accessed files.
- Volatile
What are the 6 special registers?
- Current Instruction Register (CIR)
- Memory Data Register (MDR) (Also known as the memory buffer register or data buffer)
- Memory Address Register (MAR)
- Program Counter (PC)
- Accumulator
- General Purpose Registers
What does the Current Instruction Register do?
Holds the instruction currently being executed
What does the Memory Data Register do?
Holds the piece of data of data that has been fetched from memory
What does the Memory Address Register do?
Holds the address of the next piece of memory to be fetched
What does the program counter do?
The Program counter holds the location of the next instruction to be fetched from memory. It is automatically incremented between supplying the address of the next instruction and the instruction being executed
What does the accumulator do
The accumulator stores any calculations performed by the arithmetic and logic unit
What do the general purpose registers do?
General purpose registers store any transient data required by the program
