IT_Chapter_5B

A Look Inside The Processor

• Architecture

– Determines

• Location of CPU parts

• Bit size

• Number of registers

• Pipelines

– Main difference between CPUs

Microcomputer Processors

• Intel

– Leading manufacturer of processors

– Intel 4004 was worlds first microprocessor

– IBM PC powered by Intel 8086

– Current processors

• Centrino

• Itanium

• Pentium IV

• Xeon

• Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

– Main competitor to Intel

– Originally produced budget products

– Current products outperform Intel

– Current processors

• Sempron

• Athlon FX 64

• Athlon XP

• Freescale

– A subsidiary of Motorola

– Co-developed the Apple G4 PowerPC

– Currently focuses on the Linux market

• IBM

– Historically manufactured mainframes

– Partnered with Apple to develop G5

• First consumer 64 bit chip

Comparing Processors

• Speed of processor

• Size of cache

• Number of registers

• Bit size

• Speed of Front side bus

Advanced Processor Topics

• RISC processors

– Reduced Instruction Set Computing

– Smaller instruction sets

– May process data faster

– PowerPC and G5

• Parallel Processing

– Multiple processors in a system

– Symmetric Multiple Processing

• Number of processors is a power of 2

– Massively Parallel Processing

• Thousands of processors

• Mainframes and super computers

Extending The Processors Power

• Standard computer ports

– Keyboard and mouse ports

– USB ports

– Parallel

– Network

– Modem

– Audio

– Serial

– Video

• Serial and parallel ports

– Connect to printers or modems

– Parallel ports move bits simultaneously

• Made of 8 – 32 wires

• Internal busses are parallel

– Serial ports move one bit

• Lower data flow than parallel

• Requires control wires

• UART converts from serial to parallel

Extending The Processors Power

• SCSI

– Small Computer System Interface

– Supports dozens of devices

– External devices daisy chain

– Fast hard drives and CD-ROMs

• USB

– Universal Serial Bus

– Most popular external bus

– Supports up to 127 devices

– Hot swappable

• FireWire

– IEEE 1384

– Cameras and video equipment

– Hot swappable

– Port is very expensive

• Expansion slots and boards

– Allows users to configure the machine

– Slots allow the addition of new devices

– Devices are stored on cards

– Computer must be off before inserting

• PC Cards

– Expansion bus for laptops

– PCMCIA

– Hot swappable

– Small card size

– Three types, I, II and III

– Type II is most common

• Plug and play

– New hardware detected automatically

– Prompts to install drivers

– Non-technical users can install devices