Class notes BIT 1101 (BSCCS) Structured Computer Organization

P.O. Box 342-01000 Thika
Email:
Web: www.mku.ac.ke




SCHOOL OF PURE AND APPLIED
SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY




COURSE CODE: BIT 1101




COURSE TITLE: COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE




Instructional Manual for BBIT – Distance
Learning

, TABLE OF CONTENTS
COURSE OUTLINE ................................................................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER ONE: COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE ............................................................................... 7
INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS .................................................................................................... 8
1.1. HISTORY OF COMPUTERS ............................................................................................................ 8
1.2 GENERATION OF COMPUTERS .................................................................................................... 8
1.2.1 Computer generations ............................................................................................................ 8
1.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPUTERS .......................................................................................... 10
1.4 BASIC COMPUTER CONCEPTS ................................................................................................... 10
1.5 TYPES OF COMPUTERS .............................................................................................................. 10
1.6 SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE.................................................................................................... 12
1.7 CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS ................................................................................................. 13
CHAPTER 2: BASIC HARDWARE UNITS OF A COMPUTER...................................................... 14
2.1 INPUT DEVICES ......................................................................................................................... 14
2.2 OUTPUT DEVICE ........................................................................................................................ 15
2.3 CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT (CPU)/PROCESSOR:.................................................................. 16
2.4 MAIN MEMORY:........................................................................................................................ 17
2.5 SECONDARY STORAGE .............................................................................................................. 19
2.6 COMPUTER UNITS INTERACTION DIAGRAM ............................................................................. 20
2.7 HOW INFORMATION IS STORED IN COMPUTERS ....................................................................... 21
2.8 SIZE............................................................................................................................. ............... 21
2.9 CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS ................................................................................................. 21
CHAPTER THREE: INSIDE THE COMPUTER ................................................................................. 23
3.1 THE PROCESSOR ........................................................................................................................ 23
3.2 CLOCK SPEED ................................................................................................................ ............ 24
3.3 REGISTERS ............................................................................................................................. .... 24
3.4 MOTHERBOARD ........................................................................................................................ 26
3.4.1 Form Factor .......................................................................................................................... 26
3.5 BUSES......................................................................................................................................... 28
3.6 WORD SIZE ............................................................................................................................. ... 30
3.7 I/O CONTROLLERS ................................................................................................................... 30
3.8 COMMON BUS INTERFACES ...................................................................................................... 30
3.9 CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS .................................................................................................. 31
3.10 SUGGESTED READINGS ............................................................................................................. 31
CHAPTER FOUR: FAULT DIAGNOSIS ............................................................................................. 32
4.1 POWER SUPPLY TROUBLESHOOTING ........................................................................................ 32
4.2 VIDEO FAILURE TROUBLESHOOTING ....................................................................................... 32
4.3 MOTHERBOARD AND CPU TROUBLESHOOTING ..................................................................... 32
4.4 HARD DRIVE FAILURE TROUBLESHOOTING............................................................................. 33
4.5 CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS .................................................................................................. 38
4.6 SUGGESTED READINGS ............................................................................................................. 38
CHAPTER FIVE: INPUT AND OUTPUT DEVICES AND INTERRUPTS ................................... 39
5.1 INPUT DEVICES ......................................................................................................................... 39
5.2 OUTPUT DEVICE ........................................................................................................................ 39
5.3 INTERRUPTS ............................................................................................................................... 39
5.3.1 Types of interrupt ................................................................................................................. 39



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, 5.3.2 Interrupt priorities ............................................................................................................... 40
5.3.3 The Interrupt Handler .......................................................................................................... 40
5.4 CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS .................................................................................................. 41
5.5 SUGGESTED READINGS ............................................................................................................. 41
CHAPTER SIX: COMPUTER LANGUAGES...................................................................................... 42
6.1 FIRST GENERATION - MACHINE LANGUAGE ........................................................................... 42
6.2 SECOND GENERATION - ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE ...................................................................... 42
6.3 THIRD GENERATION - HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGES.................................................................... 43
6.4 FOURTH GENERATION .............................................................................................................. 43
6.5 FIFTH GENERATION .................................................................................................................. 44
6.6 TYPES OF PROGRAM TRANSLATOR ........................................................................................... 44
6.7 CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS .................................................................................................. 46
6.8 SUGGESTED READINGS ............................................................................................................. 46
CHAPTER SEVEN: COMPUTER SOFTWARE .................................................................................. 47
7.1 CLASSIFICATION OF SOFTWARE ................................................................................................ 47
7.2 SYSTEM SOFTWARE .................................................................................................................... 48
7.3 APPLICATION SOFTWARE.......................................................................................................... 49
7.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS CONCEPTS .............................................................................................. 51
7.5 COMPUTER USER INTERFACE.................................................................................................... 52
7.6 CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS ................................................................................................. 54
7.7 SUGGESTED READINGS ............................................................................................................. 54
CHAPTER EIGHT: DISKS AND SECONDARY STORAGE .......................................................... 55
8.1 THE BENEFITS OF SECONDARY STORAGE ................................................................................. 55
8.2 MAGNETIC DISK STORAGE ....................................................................................................... 56
8.3 DISKETTES ............................................................................................................................. .... 57
8.4 HARD DISKS .............................................................................................................................. 58
8.5 REMOVABLE STORAGE: ZIP DISKS ............................................................................................ 59
8.6 HARD DISKS IN GROUPS ........................................................................................................... 59
8.8 OPTICAL DISK STORAGE ........................................................................................................... 61
8.10 MAGNETIC TAPE STORAGE ...................................................................................................... 63
8.11 BACKUP SYSTEMS ...................................................................................................................... 64
8.12 FLASH MEMORY ........................................................................................................................ 64
8.13 FILE ACCESS AND STORAGE METHODS ..................................................................................... 65
8.14 CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS .................................................................................................. 66
8.15 SUGGESTED READINGS ............................................................................................................. 66
CHAPTER NINE: HOW TO UPGRADE A SLOW COMPUTER .................................................... 67
9.1 CHANGING THE PARTS ............................................................................................................. 67
9.2 UPGRADING MEMORY .............................................................................................................. 68
9.3 CHANGING A CPU ................................................................................................................... 68
9.4 CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS .................................................................................................. 69
9.5 SUGGESTED READINGS ............................................................................................................. 69
CHAPTER TEN: INTRODUCTION TO BINARY NUMBERS ....................................................... 70
10.1 HOW COMPUTERS STORE NUMBERS ........................................................................................ 70
10.2 BASIC CONCEPTS BEHIND THE BINARY SYSTEM ...................................................................... 71
10.3 BINARY ADDITION .................................................................................................................... 72
10.4 BINARY MULTIPLICATION ........................................................................................................ 74
10.5 BINARY DIVISION ...................................................................................................................... 74



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, 10.6 DECIMAL TO BINARY ................................................................................................................ 75
10.7 ANOTHER ALGORITHM FOR CONVERTING DECIMAL TO BINARY ............................................. 77
10.8 HEXADECIMAL .......................................................................................................................... 79
10.9 CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS .................................................................................................. 80
10.10 SUGGESTED READINGS ............................................................................................................. 81
REVIEW QUESTIONS ANSWERS....................................................................................................... 82
SAMPLE QUESTION PAPERS ............................................................................................................. 83




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