http://www.scribd.

com/doc/46312470/5/Recent-Latest-interpretation-of-computer-architecture Evolution of computer architecture

The term computer architecture was coined in 1964 by the chief architectso f t h e I B M S y s t e m / 3 6 0 i n a p a p e r a n n o u n c i n g t h e m o s t s u c c e s s f u l f a m i l y o f computers ever (dnkfi) built. They interpreted (le>k gqvk) computer architecture as

the structure of a computer that a machine language programmer mustunderstand to write a correct program for a machine.

E s s e n t i a l l y , t h e i r interpretation comprises the definition of registers and memory as well as of the instruction set, instruction formats, addressing modes and the actual coding of the instructions excluding implementation and realization.
Bell and Newell made an important contribution to the concept of computer a r c h i t e c t u r e b y i n t r o d u c i n g a hierarchical, multilevel description

They identify four levels that can be used for describing a computer. These are the electronic circuit level, the logic design level, the programming level and the processor-memory-switch level
. The third level refers to the concept of architecture mentioned above. The f o u r t h l e v e l i s a t o p - l e v e l d e s c r i p t i o n o f a computer system based on the specificati on of the basic units like the processor ,memory and so on, as well as their interconnections. The next step in refining the concept of computer architecture was to extend t h e c o n c e p t o f a r c h i t e c t u r e e q u a l l y t o b o t h t h e f u n c t i o n a l s p e c i f i c a t i o n a n d t h e hardware implementation (Sima 1977, Dasgupta 1981).Since the authors just quote (nksgjkuk] Hkko cksyuk) also made use of the multilevel description approach,

they introduced a two dimensional interpretation. Here, one of the dimensions is the level of abstraction, in much the same way as introduced by Bell and Newell (1970). The other, orthogonal (vk;rh;) dimension isthe scope of interest. Here, they differentiate at each level between a black-box-likefunctional specification and the description of the implementation. Correspondingly,they distinguish between logical and physical architecture (Sima 1977) and endo-and exo- architecture (Dasgupta 1981), respectively.

As pointed out later in this section, the two dimensions considered by these authors, constitute (cuk ysuk] cuk gksuk) single, hierarchical description frameworkwith increasing levels of abstraction.Although this interpretation of the architecture concept is quite useful for ab r o a d r a n g e o f c o m p u t e r s , i t a s s u m e s t h e u s e o f t h e v o n N e u m a n n m o d e l

Therefore, in order to generalize the c o n c e p t o f c o m p u t e r architecture, we shall include in its definition a third dimension, the model of computation used.
of co mp ut at i on .

Recent (Latest) interpretation of computer architecture

We interpret the concept of computer architecture at a number of levels of increasing

underlying computational model , the functional specification as well as the a c t u a l i m p l e m e n t a t i o n . T h u s , o u r i n t e r p r e t a t i o n c o v e r s t h r e e

abstraction. At each level the architecture will be described by stating t h e a s p e c t s ; t h e underlying computational model, the level of consideration and the s c o p e o f interest, as shown

First, we briefly overview the underlying computational model. A couple of years ago the term computer architecture was inherently interpreted as a

vonNeumann

architecture . Subsequently, when novel architectures based on a model

architectures were properly labeled, for example

of computation other than the von Neumann model were introduced, these

dataflow architecture,

reduction architecture and so on. However, at present it is evident (izdV) that the concept
of c o m p u t e r a r c h i t e c t u r e s h o u l d i n c l u d e t h e s p e c i f i c a t i o n o f t h e u n d e r l y i n g computational model as well. Here, we recalls the most important models relating to architectures.

The abstract architecture is a black-box specification either from the programmers point of view, or from the hardware designers point of view.In the first case we are dealing with the programming model, in the secondwith the hardware model.W h i l e t h e

programming model i s a b l a c k - b o x s p e c i f i c a t i o n f r o m t h e programmers point of view, the hardware model i s v i e w e d a s a b l a c k - b o x description for a hardware designer. Concrete architecture Concrete architecture is designed by different authors as an endo architecture, or sometimes as an internal or physical architecture or a structurald e s c r i p t i o n . I t s p e c i f i e s h o w a c o m p u t e r i s i m p l e m e n t e d a t a p a r t i c u l a r l e v e l o f abstraction, whereby a particular computational model is taken for granted. Byimplementation we mean the internal structure and operation, which may be givenby specifying a set of components and their interconnections as well as the possibledata- and control- flows. The concrete architecture can also be considered from two different points of view: logic design or physical design. The logic design is an abstraction of the physical design and precedes it. Itsspecification requires: t h e d e c l a r a t i o n o f t h e l o g i c a l c o m p o n e n t s u s e d , s u c h a s r e g i s t e r s , execution units and so on. the specification of their interconnections, and the specification of the sequence of information transfers, which are initiated by each of the declared function. The physical design is based on concrete circuit elements. The specificationof a physical design covers: the declaration of the circuit elements used, which also includes the specification of signals, the specification of their interconnections, and the declaration of the initiated signal sequences.Usually, both the logic and physical design are described in terms of the nextlower level of components. For example, the concrete architecture of a processorwould be best described in terms of functional units such as register files, executionunits, buses and so on.

Computer architecture at different level of abstraction

The most important particular interpretations of the concept of computerarchitecture are the concrete architecture at the system level, the abstract and c o n c r e t e a r c h i t e c t u r e a t t h e p r o c e s s o r l e v e l a n d t h e a b s t r a c t a n d c o n c r e t e architecture at the micromachine level.

1.Concrete architecture of computer systems At the system level the description of the concrete a r c h i t e c t u r e i s b a s e d o n processor-level building blocks, such as processors, memories, buses and so on. Its description includes the specification of the building blocks, of the interconnections among them and of the whole system.