Computer Systems Organization

A computer system, or information processing machine, is made up of various components. The components can be hardware or software.

Overview

The computer systems we build today feature programmable processing units which interact with a number of devices, each controlled by an I/O controller. There's also a memory.

computersystem.gif

Clearly the picture is an oversimplification. Each CPU can have one or more cores. Memory itself is layered (caches, main, secondary). Machines themselves are networked, giving the appearance of one large machine made up of smaller ones.

Devices are roughly classified into input devices, output devices and storage devices. Examples of devices are

Input Devices Output Devices Storage Devices
Keyboard
Mouse
Light Pen
Joystick
Joyswitch
Trackball
Digitizer
Video Camera
Microphone
(Voice Recognizer)
Scanner
Surface
Data Glove 		Display
Printer
Plotter
Film Recorder
Hologram Generator
Robot Arm
Speaker
(Voice synthesizer)
 Disk Drive
CD or DVD Drive
Tape Drive
Exercise: What other devices are you aware of?

Layers of Organization

Modern computer systems have a layered organization, which each layer either using the services of, or being physically built from, entities on the level directly below it.

Layer People Domain
Application Programs Application Programmers Software
System Utility Programs System Programmers
Operating System
I/O System (BIOS)
Computer System Computer Engineers Hardware
CPU Computer Architects
Memories, Logic Circuits, Fliop-Flops, Gates Logic Designers
Transistors, Diodes, Resistors, Power Supplies Materials Scientists
Exercise: Research "firmware". How does firmware fit into this table?

Topics in Machine Organization

In no particular order: