Lecture 3 – Modern Technology and Types of Computer
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Digital System Design 4
Lecture 3 – Modern Technology
and Types of Computer
Dr Stewart Smith
& Dr Chang Liu
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Summary of Last Lecture
• Events leading up to the development of the stored
program computer.
• The separation between design, and implementation.
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
This Lecture
• Types of computing
‣ (§1.1 – Introduction)
• Software / Hardware Hierarchy
‣ (§1.2 – Below Your Programme)
• Parts of a computer
‣ (§1.3 – Under the Covers)
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Eight Great Ideas in Computer
Architecture
• Design for Moore’s Law
• Use Abstraction to Simplify Design
• Make the Common Case Fast
• Performance via Parallelism
• Performance via Pipelining
• Performance via Prediction
• Hierarchy of Memories
• Dependability via Redundancy
Patterson and Hennesey 5th Ed, Pages 11-12.
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Below Your Program
• Application software
‣ Written in high-level language
• System software
‣ Compiler: translates HLL code to
machine code
‣ Operating System: service code
– Handling input/output
– Managing memory and storage
– Scheduling tasks & sharing resources
• Hardware
‣ Processor, memory, I/O controllers
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Levels of Program Code
• High-level language
‣ Level of abstraction closer to
problem domain
‣ Provides for productivity and
portability
• Assembly language
‣ Textual representation of
instructions
• Hardware representation
‣ Binary digits (bits)
‣ Encoded instructions and data
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Parts of a Computer
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Manufacturing ICs
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Manufacturing ICs
• Intel Core i7 wafer
‣ 300mm wafer, 280 chips, 32nm technology
‣ Each chip is 20.7 x 10.5 mm
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Manufacturing ICs
• Intel Core i7 – Quad Core
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Revision – Types of Computing
Types of Computing
• Embedded
‣ Phones, TVs, ADSL
‣ ARM
• Consumer (Home/Business)
‣ PCs
• Datacenter
‣ Google, Amazon, etc.
• Supercomputer
‣ Top 500 (http://
www.top500.org)
‣ Scientific Computing
‣ Finance
‣ Big Industry (Oil/Gas/
Medical)
Types of Computer
• Microcontroller
‣ PIC, Arduino, MSP430
• Digital Signal Processor
(DSP)
‣ Texas Instruments
• FPGA
‣ Xilinx, Altera
• Microprocessor
‣ ARM, Intel, AMD
• (General Purpose) Graphics
Processing Unit (GPGPU)
‣ Nvidia, AMD
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
The Computing Revolution
M
ill
io
ns
2006 survey showed that US families owned an average of 12 gadgets.
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
The Computing Revolution
M
ill
io
ns
Cell phone (not
including smart phone)
Smart phone sales
PC (not including
tablets)
Tablet
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Post-PC era
0
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1600
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M
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Cell phone
(excluding smart phones)
PC (excluding tablets)
Smart phone
Tablet
This book belongs to Stewart Smith (stewart.smith@ed.ac.uk) Copyright Elsevier 2021
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Which is the best car?
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Performance
• A rigorous analysis will have to wait till Lecture 4
• Key things to think about for now:
‣ Throughput
– Work / Time
‣ Cost Effectiveness
– Performance / Price
‣ Relative Performance
– For a fixed task, which does it faster?
‣ Power Efficiency
– Performance / Power
‣ Multiprocessor Performance
– Adding more processors…
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Choice of System
• Consider an application… a robot, a quadcopter, a 3D printer,
a video editing computer, a web facing camera, a data centre…
• How do we choose our development platform?
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Types of Computing: Embedded
• Important
‣ Low Price
‣ Small package
‣ Low Power
• Not important
‣ Performance
‣ Flexibility
‣ Multitasking
• May need
‣ Low Latency (real-time controllers)
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Types of Computing: Consumer
• Range of markets
‣ Smart phones / tablets
‣ Laptops
‣ Home PCs
‣ Workstation PCs
‣ Gaming PCs
• Price / power / performance depend on
market
• Need to support multitasking
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Types of Computing: Datacenter
• Important
‣ Power
– Require cooling
– Cost of power main overhead
‣ Reliability
‣ Availability of replacement parts
‣ Cost
• Not particularly important
‣ Performance
‣ Size
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Types of Computing:
Supercomputing
• Important
‣ Performance!
‣ (Flexibility)
• Not important
‣ Cost
‣ Size
‣ Multitasking
• May be important
‣ Power
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Types of Computing: Requirements
Embedded Consumer Datacenter Supercompu2ng
Price *** * ** *
Latency *** * * *
Throughput * *** *** ***
Power *** *(*) **(*) **
Mul2tasking – *** *** *
Flexibility * *** * **
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Types of Computer: Comparison
Microcontroller DSP FPGA Microprocessor GPGPU
Price *** *** ** * *
Latency *** ** ** * *
Throughput * *** ** ** ***
Parallelism – – ** * ***
Power *** *** ** * *
Mul2tasking – – – *** –
Flexibility ** * *** *** *
Ease of
Programming
** * * *** **
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Types of Computing: Market
Microcontroller DSP FPGA Microprocessor GPGPU
Embedded *** ** *
Consumer *** **
Datacenter ***
Supercomputer * *** **
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Parts of a Computer
• Processor
• Memory/Storage
• Input
• Output
• Control
• Power Supply
• Cooling
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Embedded Systems
• Processor
‣ May be a simple
microcontroller (+ DSP)
‣ A ‘core’ on a larger chip
• Memory
‣ May be integrated with
processor
• Storage
‣ Usually Flash RAM
• Input / Output
‣ Serial Links
‣ Direct connection to
other circuits
• Power Supply
‣ Low power DC /
battery
• Cooling
‣ Not usually required
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
ADSL Modem
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
ADSL Modem
1. Telephone decoupling electronics (for ADSL).
2. Multicolour LED (displaying network status).
3. Single colour LED (displaying USB status).
4. Main processor, a TNETD7300GDU, a member
of Texas Instruments’ AR7 product line.
5. JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) test and
programming port.
6. RAM, a single ESMT M12L64164A 8 MB chip.
7. Flash memory, obscured by sticker.
8. Power supply regulator.
9. Main power supply fuse.
10. Power connector.
11. Reset button.
12. Quartz crystal.
13. Ethernet port.
14. Ethernet transformer, Delta LF8505.
15. KS8721B ethernet PHY transmitter receiver.
16. USB port.
17. Telephone (RJ11) port.
18. Telephone connector fuses.
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Consumer Grade Computers
• Processor
‣ Stand-alone processor
‣ Integrated floating point unit
‣ Integrated graphics
• Memory
‣ Off-chip Dynamic RAM
(DDR)
• Storage
‣ Magnetic Disk
‣ Solid State Disks / Flash
• Input / Output
‣ Monitor
‣ Keyboards / Mice
(Human Interface Devices)
‣ Network (Ethernet / Wifi)
• Power Supply
‣ DC transformer /
Batteries
• Cooling
‣ Air cooling (usually)
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Domestic PC
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Domestic PC
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iPad Teardown
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Datacenter
• Processor
‣ Commodity PC hardware
‣ Whatever is available +
good value
• Memory
‣ Off-chip Dynamic RAM
(DDR)
• Storage
‣ Magnetic Disk
• Input / Output
‣ Internet bearer ethernet
• Power Supply
‣ Industrial scale supplies
‣ Sited near power stations
‣ Geothermal (Iceland)
• Cooling
‣ Air / Chilled Water
Cooling
‣ Sited for cooling (Iceland)
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Datacenter
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Google Datacenter: Blade
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Datacenter: I/O
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Datacenter: Cooling
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Supercomputer
• Processor
‣ High end multicore PC
‣ FPGA clusters
‣ GPGPUs
‣ Whatever has high
performance
• Memory
‣ Off-chip Dynamic RAM
(DDR)
• Storage
‣ Magnetic Disk
• Input / Output
‣ Ethernet
• Power Supply
‣ Industrial scale supplies
• Cooling
‣ Air / Chilled Water
Cooling
‣ Refrigeration
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Supercomputing: Cray-1
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Supercomputing: Power Supply
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Supercomputing: Cooling
Stewart Smith Digital Systems Design 4
Next Lecture – Performance
• Performance criteria
• Execution time and throughput
• Relative performance – comparison
• Cost and power
• Multiprocessor performance