3.3: Computer Architecture

Von Neuman Architecture, Registers and the Fetch Execute Cycle

John Von Neuman - Jolly Good fella.....!

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

Henry V - Shakespeare

A very important bloke in the history of computing.

Hey why don't we STORE programs in blocks of memory.

Previously data and program instructions were stored in separate memories, however there is no difference between numbers that code for variables and those that code for instructions so they can use the same memory. These led to the introduction of compilers which take in higher level languages (text) and produce the binary codes needed for the computers.

Linear processing of instructions - FETCH-DECODE-EXECUTE using a single processor.

Registers

The processor needs special registers to allow this to work: (see Section 1.4)