228-1 Computer Architecture and Technology
TU856-1 and TU858-1
Computer Architecture and Technology
(Week 2) Tutorial 1
Monday 1 February 2021
Questions and Answers ( 1 )
What is a Computer System?
A collection of devices and software that function as a unit to perform tasks such as the manipulation and/or storage of data and software, and/or sharing of data/software.
Questions and Answers ( 2 )
What is Contained in a Computer System?
Input devices
Processor (Central Processing Unit – CPU)
Storage devices
Output devices
System software (including the Operating System)
Applications software
(For any type of network) Communications software.
Questions and Answers ( 3 )
What Were the Main Events in the History of Computers?
The move from mechanical calculating machines to electric-mechanical devices.
The move from analog to digital machines.
The ‘stored program concept’ of Jon Von Neumann architecture of the 1940s.
The linking of two digital machines (starting networks).
The evolution of the Internet.
Questions and Answers ( 4 )
What is Jacquard’s Loom?
Joseph-Marie Jacquard, a French weaver, invented a fabric weaving loom that used punched cards to represent instructions for weaving a pattern in cloth.
The punched card idea is quite similar to the punched card arrangement that computers of the 1950s and 60s used to represent instructions and data.
Questions and Answers ( 5 )
What might be the future of Computer Systems?
Cheaper hardware.
More hardware specialisation.
Cheaper software.
More software specialisation.
Cloud computing and ‘ubiquitous’ computing.
Questions and Answers ( 6 )
What Might be the Future Problems?
It is (nearly) always security.
Typical Exam (Sub) Question For This Content
Question
What is the basis of a computer system design, and what does such a system contain?
Sample solution
What is a ‘system’? A system is a generally defining word that implies that there exists a type of input, a type of procedure and a type of output.
A computer system can be described as having
input(s),
procedure(s) or process(es),
output(s).
Solution continued
A computer system is a set of hardware and software that processes data. A relatively simple computer system is a personal computer. An example of a complex computer system is the Internet.
What makes a computer system even more useful is its ability to STORE data (or signals of a non-data type) after it has been output – or while it is output. That output or stored data can be used as input in a ‘feedback loop’, if necessary.
A computer system is a system because the two aspects of hardware and software have to work together.
Solution continued
A typical ‘computer system’ comes with interconnection capability. (Many computer systems can interconnect – that is, join to become a bigger system.)
‘Hardware’ is the term that encapsulates the electronic devices and circuitry that make up the physical components of the computer system.
‘Software’ is the term that describes the instructions (and data) that determine the use of the processing capability.
Software is often the invisible means of process that goes on as the computer is running.
(10 marks)