26-12-2012, 11:52 AM
BASIC CONCEPTS OF COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
1BASIC CONCEPTS OF COMPUTER.doc (Size: 595 KB / Downloads: 25)
INTRODUCTION
A program is a list of instructions or statements for directing the computer to perform a required data-processing task. We may write various types of programming languages, but the computer can only execute programs when they are represented internally in binary form.
Programs we design in any language must first be translated to the binary representation before the computer can execute them. The binary language in which instructions are defined and stored in memory is referred to as machine language.
A programming language is defined by a set of rules. In order for programs to be translated correctly, we must follow all format rules of the language. Thus, assembly language is a symbolic language that replaces binary opcode and addresses with symbolic names and provides helpful features to the programmer.
Type of Programming Languages:
1. Machine Language
2. Assembly Language
3. High-Level Language
4. 4GL Language
• • Machine Language – the natural or primitive language thatt he computer actually understands. This programming language consists of 0’s and 1’s which makes programmning very difficult.
• Assembly Language – a programming language that uses “abbreviations” or mnemonics in place of binary patterns in order to make the task of programming easier.
• Assembler – is a special program that translates assembly langugae mnemonics into machine language.
• Both Machine Language and Assembly Language are Low-Level Languages.
• High – Level Language – a programming language that uses English-like commands or instructions. Also known as the third generation language. A compiler is a special program that translates high-level language instructions into machine language. Examples are FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, and PASCAL
• Fourth-Generation Language(4GL) – is a programming language designed with a specific purpose in mind such as the develoment of commercial business software.
What is Parallel Processing?
Parallel processing is another method used to improve performance in a computer system, when a system
processes two different instructions simultaneously,
it is performing parallel processing
Parallelism in Multiprocessor Systems:
Parallel processing systems achieve parallelism by having more than one processor performing tasks simultaneously. Since multiprocessor systems are more complicated than uniprocessor systems, there are many different ways to organize the processors and memory, so a researcher, Michael J. Flynn proposed a classification based on the flow of instructions and data within the computer called Flynn’s classification