Computer hardware

Computer hardware

1. Embedded Systems

   • systems that perform a certain task
     • easier to design
     • cheaper to produce
     • more efficient

2. CPU

   • Brain of the computer
     • has 3 main parts;
       • Control unit
         • main job is to execute instructions
         • controls flow of data
       • Arithmetic unit
         • does all calculations
         • performs logic operations such as AND, OR, NOT and binary shifts.
         • contains the accumulator register
       • Cache
         • fast memory (faster than RAM)
         • store regularly used data for quick access
         • low capacity
   • processing power depends on clock speed, number of cores and cache size

3. other registers etc.

   • Program Counter (PC)
     • holds memory ADDRESS of instruction for each cycle
   • Accumulator
     • stiores intermediate results of calculations
   • Memory address register (MAR)
     • holds any memory ADDRESS about to be used by CPU
   • Memory Data register (MDR)
     • holds data or instruction