08. The Heart of the Computer

This web page is associated with a book called called The Animated Computer

The book can be bought at: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Dr_Jerome_Heath_THE_EBOOK_ON_COMPUTER_DESIGN?id=WxOTBQAAQBAJ 

The book gives excellent explanations for the animated images on this web site. This web page shows the animation of the computer designs in action. The book gives explanations of what the animations are about. Combining the books explanations with the animation provides a well rounded understanding of the animated computer.

The CPU is a part of specialization that is typical for advanced contexts of the computer. There are many unique processes that are only found in this one area of the computer. All the special processing in the CPU makes it a very special context. The variations of this context are the many ways this capability is set up in different CPUs. The particular variations are different but have a family resemblance character to each other.

The CPU Control Unit in Action!

The CPU is the heart of the computer. The processing power of the computer is the combination of many simple processing steps that allows the computer to be so effective at what it does well. A simple controller carries the CPU through the fetch-decode-execute cycle. The simplicity of this cycle is misleading because of the capability it gives the computer. Here we are discussing the original computer design before microarchitecture and pipelining began.

The ALU in Action!

Diagramming Various Functions in the ALU and Shifter.

Dr. Jerome Heath

See also: The Animated Computer