Basic Concepts of the

Personal Computer

White Chiu
AE of IAG
Oct. 11 2007
Contents
History of PC Evolution
PC Architecture
CISC & RISC CPU
PCI Routing
AT v.s. ATX Power
ATA and SATA (RAID)
History Of PC Evolution
History of PC Evolution
First appeared as the Intel 8086 CPU in 1978.
IBM and Microsoft made it an operation
system, meaning all documentation and
specifications of the H/W and S/W of the PC
were made public.
8086802868038680486 Pentium
History of PC Evolution
x86 CPU OS Support

DOS
Windows
Unix
Linux
Mac OS
PC Architecture
Before OS Entered the Picture
Traditional x86 Architecture
CISC & RISC CPU
CISC & RISC CPU

CPU

CISC RISC
CISC
Complex Instruction Set Computer
Complex instructions
Variable length instructions
Relatively small number of registers
Access memory locations directly
x86: Intel and AMD
Personal computers and low- and mid-range
servers and workstations.
RISC
Reduced Instruction Set Computer
Derived from CISC
Fixed length and regular format instructions
Larger number of registers than CISC
Operations are performed on registers only. The only
memory operations are load and store.
Hardware in RISC is simpler because RISC
architecture relies more on the complier for
sequencing complex operations.
AVR, PIC, ARM, DEC, Alpha, PA-RISC, SPARC, MIPS, Power
Architecture, etc.
Workstations and servers.
 Storage Scheme for
a Generic Computer
Main memory is divided
into locations numbered
from (row) 1: (column) 1
to (row) 6: (column) 4.
We want to find the
product of two numbers
- one stored in location
2:3 and another stored in
location 5:2 - and then
store the product back in
the location 2:3.
RISC Approach

1. LOAD A, 2:3
2. LOAD B, 5:2
3. PROD A, B
4. STORE 2:3, A

Each fixed length and

regular format is executes
during one clock cycle.
CISC Approach

MULT 2:3, 5:2

One variable length and

complex instruction
executes during several
clock cycles.
CISC vs. RISC
CISC RISC
Emphasis on hardware Emphasis on software
Includes multi-clock Single-clock

complex instructions reduced instruction only

Memory-to-memory: Register to register:
"LOAD" and "STORE" "LOAD" and "STORE"
incorporated in instructions are independent instructions
Small code sizes Low cycles per second
high cycles per second large code sizes
Transistors used for storing Spends more transistors
complex instructions on memory registers
PCI Introduction
PCI System Block Diagram
PCI Connector
PCI Bandwidth Comparison
PICMG Backplane
Standard: PICMG
PCI Industrial Computer Manufactures Group

Compatible with PCI standard

Purpose is to expand ISA and PCI slots for more

application adapters
Primary & Secondary PCI Slot
Comparison of PCI and PICMG 1/3
Comparison of PCI and PICMG 2/3
Comparison of PCI and PICMG 3/3
PCI INT Routing
NO PCI INT routing

With PCI INT routing

PCI INT Routing
 PCI INT Routing

If there are on board functions, it may share the

same IRQ with add-on cards
IRQ sharing is allowed in PCI
Normal, most of add-on cards use #INT A only
Hardware INT routing design has to work with BIOS
programming
AT vs. ATX Power
AT (Advanced Technology)
The AT form factor is the first modern form
factor to be widely used
AT (Advanced Technology) was released in
1984 By IBM
In the 1990s many computers still used AT
and its variants, but ATX has been the most
popular standard since 1997. AT v.s. ATX
Power
ATX (Advanced Technology Extended)
The ATX (for Advanced Technology
Extended) form factor was created by Intel
in 1995
A full size ATX board is 12" wide by 9.6"
deep (305 mm x 244 mm).
24-pin ATX power supply connector
(20-pin omits the last 4: 11, 12, 23 and 24)
ATX & AT Form Factor
AT (Advanced Technology)
ATX (Advanced Technology eXtended)

24-pin ATX
power supply
connector
(20-pin omits
the last 4: 11,
12, 23 and 24)
ATA and SATA (RAID)
Inside HDD
Inside HDD

Hard disk platter (or

disk) is a component of
a HDD: it is the circular
disk on which the
magnetic data are
stored. Hard drives
typically have several
platters which are
mounted on the same
spindle.
Inside HDD

HDD Head :Close-up of

a hard disk head resting
on the disk platter. The
smooth disk surface
shows a mirror image of
the head/slider resting
on its surface.
Inside HDD
Data is stored on the surface of a platter in the
sectors and tracks
ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment)

IDE (Integrated Drive

Electronics)
Parallel Transmission
16 bit wide parallel
data bus up to
133MB/s
One channel supports
up to 2 drives
(Master/ Slave)
ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment)
ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment)

For 80 pin cable: the extra 40 pins are ground pins to

reduce noise in order to boost the speed
ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment)
SATA (Serial ATA)

Serial transmission
7 pin for data and 25
pin for power
Bandwidth:
150MB/s(SATA 2 can
support up to 3Gbps)
Hot Swap capability
Data is stored on the
surface of a platter in
the sectors and tracks
SATA (Serial ATA)
 ATA & SATA & SATA II

ATA (IDE) SATA SATA II

Transmission Parallel Serial Serial

Band width Up to 133 MB/s 150MB /s 300 MB /s

Hop Swap NO YES YES

Support

Compatibility Incompatible Incompatible Compatible

with SATA with ATA with SATA
RAID
RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive
(or sometimes Independent) Disks.
RAID is a method of combining several hard
drives into one logical unit.
The purpose of RAID:
Enhance Performance
Data Backup
RAID 0

Striped Disk Array without Fault Tolerance

Requires a minimum of 2 drives to implement
RAID 1

Mirroring and Duplexing

Requires a minimum of 2 drives to implement
RAID 0+1

High Data Transfer Performance

Requires a minimum of 4 drives to implement
RAID 3

Parallel Transfer with parity

Requires a minimum of 3 drives to implement
RAID 5

Data Stripling with distributed parity blocks

Requires a minimum of 3 drives to implement
RAID Summary

RAID Minimum Data Performance Performance Application

Level Drives Availability Sequential Random Strength
NRAID 1 Drive Drive
RAID 0 2 ==NRAID R: Highest R: High Dynamic data
W: Highest W: Highest acquisition
RAID 1 2 >>NRAID R: High R: Medium Mirror boot drive
==RAID 5 W: Medium W: Low
RAID 4 >>NRAID R: Highest R: High Best
0+1 ==RAID 5 W: Medium W: High Cost/Performance
RAID 3 3 >>NRAID R: High R: Medium Video, CAD/CAM
==RAID 5 W: Medium W: Low Pre-press, Medical
imaging
large file
applications
RAID 5 3 >>NRAID R: High R: High Transaction
==RAID 5 W: Medium W: Low processing with
high read to write
ratio
Thank You!