CSC104H1 Study Guide - Compact Disc, Instruction Register, Von Neumann Architecture
Document Summary
After a detour through a (fairly) modern programming language (racket), we consider the hardware components of contemporary computers. Although a variety of hardware architectures exist, some major features are present in the overwhelming majority of computers: 1 a central processing unit (cpu), which contains an arithmetic/logical? unit (alu) and a control unit. We earlier considered some of the basic arithmetic and logical operations that computer circuits can carry out on sequences of bits: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and the logical operations and, or, and not. Circuits to rapidly carry out these, and other related, operations are grouped in the alu. Sequencing of operations (determining what happens when) is the function of the control unit. In the earliest computers, this sequence was hard-wired by physically soldering together circuits, or connecting them with physical plugs. The circuits containing these instructions, together with the alu, occupied large racks, and a hard-wired computer was dedicated to just the particular task it was wired for.
