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‫قـائـمة المحتويات‬

‫الفصل األول‪2........................................................................‬‬

‫الفصل الثاني‪6......................................................................‬‬

‫الفصل الثالث‪10....................................................................‬‬

‫الفصل الرابع والخامس‪15......................................................‬‬

‫الفصل السادس‪22...............................................................‬‬

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1. It helps you to answer the question:

How does a computer work? Computer organization

How do I design a computer? Computer Architecture

2. What is The computer architecture for a given machine?

The combination of its hardware components plus its instruction set architecture (ISA).
3. What does The computer organization involve?
It involves all the physical features of computer systems
4. What is the principle of equivalence of hardware and software?
Any task done by software can also be done using hardware, and any task done by hardware can
also be done using software.
5. What does the term “addressable” mean?
A particular byte can be retrieved according to its location in memory.
6. What does Random-access mean?
Memory contents can be accessed directly if you know its location.
7. What is the job of the control level? (4)
▪ Receives machine instructions from the level above
▪ Decodes and executes those instructions properly
▪ Moves data to where and when it should be
▪ The control unit interprets the machine instructions

8. At the simple level, a computer is a device that consists of three components:

processor, memory, a mechanism for I/O.
9. ISA is the agreed-upon interface between all the software that runs on the machine and the
hardware that executes it.
10. A bit is the most basic unit of information in a computer
11. Frequency :The number of pulses emitted each second by the clock.
12. A Byte is the smallest possible addressable unit of computer storage.
13. A Word is a contiguous group of bytes

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14. The power-of-2 prefixes are used for Capacity.
15. The Microprocessor is the “brain” of the system
16. Bytes consist of two nibbles: High-order and low-order.
17. The Clock sends electrical pulses simultaneously to all main components.
18. A byte is a group of eight bits.
19. Cache is a type of temporary memory that can be accessed faster than RAM.
20. Hard Disk capacity determines the amount of data and size of programs you can store.
21. SATA describes how the hard disk interfaces with other system components.
22. Ports allow movement of data between a system and its external devices.
23. Serial ports send data as a series of pulses along one or two data lines (low data rate)
24. A nibble : a group of four bits.
25. Parallel ports send data as a single pulse along at least eight data lines ( better data rate)
26. cache sizes are measured in KB and MB
27. USB is an intelligent serial interface that is self-configuring. (best data rate)
28. A bus is a group of wires that moves data and instructions to various places within a computer

29. The Computer Level Hierarchy

▪ Level 6: User level, consists of programs.
▪ Level 5: Languages, consists of higher-level languages.
▪ Level 4: Assembly level, consists of assembly code.
▪ Level 3: System software level, consists of OS and library code.
▪ Level 2: Machine level.
▪ Level 1: Control level, where a control unit does its job.
▪ Level 0: digital logic level, where we find the physical components: gates and wires.

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1. List the properties of Numbering systems:
▪ Any numeric value is represented through increasing powers of a base.
▪ The set of valid numerals (digits) is equal in size to the base of that system.
▪ The least numeral is 0 and the highest one is 1 smaller than the base.
▪ Adding 1 to the highest numeral gives you 10

2. Base points separate the integer part of a number from its fractional part.

3. the highest-order bit is the leftmost bit, and it is called the MSB

4. the lowest-order bit is the rightmost bit, and it is called LSB

5. A binary number with N bits can represent 2n unsigned integers from 0 to 2n-1

6. It is faster and more accurate to convert to base 10 and then to the desired base

7. The binary numbering system is the most important base system for digital computers

8. Each octal digit is equivalent to a group of 3 binary digits called octet

9. Each hexadecimal digit is equivalent to a group of 4 binary digits called hextet

10. Signed binary integers may be expressed in three ways:

- Signed magnitude
- One’s complement
- Two’s complement

11. Signed magnitude is the most intuitive method for representing the unsigned numbers.

12. The MSB of a binary number is kept as the sign of the number

13. In an N bit word signed magnitude system:

The largest integer is 2n-1-1

The smallest integer is – (2n-1-1)

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14. When do we have an overflow in signed-magnitude addition?

When there is a carry 1 in while adding the last bits

15. What are the disadvantages of signed magnitude representation? (2)

- It requires complicated computer hardware

- It allows two different representations for zero

16. computers systems employ complement systems for numeric value representation.

17. a significant: is a fancy word for a mantissa.

18. The Complement system is used to represent/convert negative numbers only.
19. What are the Advantages of the complement system?
▪ Simplify computer arithmetic
▪ No need to process sign bits separately
▪ The sign of a number is easily checked by looking at its high-order bit (MSB).
20. How do we convert a negative number to its one’s complement?
By flipping the bits, 1s become 0s, and vice versa
21. What is the disadvantage of the one’s complement?
It allows two different representations for zero
22. When does an overflow occur in complement systems?
if two positive numbers are added and the result is negative, or the opposite.
23. How to detect an overflow in complement systems?
Check the “carry-in” and the “carry-out” of the sign bit:
If these are different: there is an overflow

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24. What are the Advantages of the two’s complement? (5)
▪ It is the most popular choice for representing signed numbers
▪ The algorithm for adding and subtracting is quite easy
▪ It has the best representation for 0 (all 0 bits)
▪ It is self-inverting
▪ It is easily extended to larger numbers of bits
25. Numbers written in scientific notation have three components:

26. In digital computers, floating-point numbers consist of three parts:

27. The significand is always preceded by an implied binary point Thus, the significand always
contains a fractional value
28. Normalization : first digit of the significand must be 1, with no ones to the left of the base
point.
29. What is the disadvantage of floating-point simple model?
The negative exponents are not supported.
30. To add/subtract two numbers in floating point form, both numbers should have the same
exponent

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1. Boolean Algebra: is a mathematical system for the manipulation of variables that can have
one of two values.
2. A Boolean Variable: is a variable that can take only one of two values : 0 (false) or 1 (true).
3. A Boolean Expression: is a combination of Boolean variables and operators.
4. A Boolean Function: typically has one or more input values and yields a result in the range
{0,1}, based on these input values.
5. List the rules of precedence for Boolean expressions:
- Parentheses ()
- NOT
- AND
- OR
6. The truth table will include a number of combinations equal to 2n combinations of the n
inputs.
7. A Boolean function has at least:
- One Boolean Variable
- One Boolean operator
- One input from the set {0,1}

8. DeMorgan’s law:

9. In order to find the complement of a Boolean expression, you have to:

- Replace each variable by its complement

- Interchange ANDs and ORs
- Repeat until the final answer is reached

10. SOP: consists of ANDed variables (product terms) that are ORed together.

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11. POS: consist of ORed variables (sum terms) that are ANDed together.
12. In standardized form of Boolean functions, SOP is more common than the other.
13. A minterm: is a product term that contains all of the function’s variables exactly once,
whether complemented or not.
14. to generate a (SOP) expression using the truth table for any Boolean expression, we need to:
- Search for the lines where the function outputs 1
- For each of these lines, generate a minterm of the input variable: complement it, if it's
set to 0.
- Sum the products
15. for Boolean expressions, Two methods for simplification exist:
- Boolean Algebra identities
- K-maps
16. K-map is a matrix consisting of rows and columns that represent the output values of a
Boolean function.

17. Rules of K-map simplification:

- Groupings can contain only 1s; no 0s.
- Groups can be formed only at right angles; diagonal groups are not allowed.
- The number of 1s in a group must be a power of 2, even if it contains a single 1.
- The groups should be made as large as possible.
- Groups can overlap and wrap around the sides of the K-map.

18. A gate is an electronic device that produces a result based on two or more input values.
19. In reality, gates consist of one-six transistors.
20. NAND and NOR are known as the universal gates.

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21. Why universal gates are important?
- Complex integrated circuits are easier to build using the same building block
- They're cheaper to build
22. NAND gates are used for implementing an expression in SOP form.
23. combinations of gates implement Boolean functions
24. A logical diagram is a combination of AND, OR, and NOT gates that describes a Boolean
expression.
25. Combinational logic is used to build circuits that contain basic Boolean operators, inputs, and
outputs.
26. Half-Adder is one of the most basic combinational logic circuits in computing, used to
combine single-digit binary numbers.
27. Full-Adder a circuit that allows the addition of larger binary numbers.
28. A ripple-carry adder is a succession of full-adders but it is slow.
29. A decoder decodes binary information of a set of n inputs to a maximum of 2n outputs.
30. A decoder uses the inputs and their respective values to select one specific output line
31. Decoders are useful in selecting a memory location

32. multiplexer selects binary information from one of many input lines and directs it to a single
output line.

33. There are two types of sequential circuits representing two ways to order events:

- Asynchronous
- Synchronous

34. Asynchronous: they become active the moment any input value changes. Circuit output can
change at any time (clock less)

35. Synchronous: Circuit output changes only at some discrete instants of time.

36. A clock is a special circuit that sends electrical pulses through a circuit.

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37. Feedback in digital circuits occurs when an output is looped back to the input

38. Sequential circuits remember previous inputs by flip-flops

39. The Flip-flops receive their inputs from the combinational circuit and from a clock signal with
pulses that occur at fixed intervals of time.

40. SR flip-flops are the most basic.

41. Invalid condition means that the output cannot be known.

42. JK flip-flop is a modified version of the SR flip-flop that provides a stable state when both
inputs are 1.

43. D flip-flop is considered the basic memory storage in many circuits, as it stores one bit that
remains there until another input is stated.

44. A register holds data within a digital system.

45. An n-bit counter is formed by n flip-flops that are connected is such a way as to produce the
prescribed sequence of binary states.

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Introduction
1. The Von-Neumann model satisfies at least the following characteristics: (3)
- Consists of three hardware systems
- Capacity to carry out sequential instruction processing
- Contains a single path, between the main memory system and the control unit of the
CPU
2. List the three hardware systems that this model consists of:
- CPU with a control unit, ALU, registers and program counter
- a main-memory system which holds programs that control the computer’s operation;
- and an I/O system

3. A memory stores both data and program instructions.

4. The CPU fetches, decodes, and executes program instructions sequentially.
5. Each machine instruction is fetched, decoded and executed during one cycle known as von-
Neumann execution cycle
6. One iteration of the cycle is as follows: (4)
- control unit fetches the next program instruction from the memory, using the program
counter to determine where the instruction is located.
- The instruction is decoded into a language the ALU can understand.
- Any data operands required to execute the instruction are fetched from memory and
placed into registers within the CPU.
- The ALU executes the instruction and places the results in registers or memory.

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7. The computer’s CPU or Processor does three things:
▪ Fetch,
- PC indicates the iteration number
- CU fill the instruction register
▪ Decode,
- what ALU should do
- Fill registers with needed data
▪ Execute,
- Execute the instruction
- Place the results in registers or memory

8. The two principal parts of the CPU are the Datapath and the Control unit
9. Datapath: consists of an arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) and network of storage units (registers)
that are interconnected by a data bus that is also connected to main memory.
10. Control unit: responsible for sequencing the operations and making sure the correct data is
in the correct place at the correct time.
11. Registers hold data that can be readily accessed by the CPU. They are places to store a wide
variety of data. They are located on the processor
12. The control unit directly accesses data inside the registers
13. General Purpose registers are registers available to the programmer.
14. Special Purpose registers always stores the same type of data
15. ALU carries out logical and arithmetic operations as directed by the CU
16. CU determines which actions to carry out according to the values in a program counter
register and a status register.
17. What does the CU do? (2)
- fetches and decodes sequentially the instructions stocked in the main memory.
- monitors the execution of these instructions and the transfer of all information.

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18. A bus is a set of wires that simultaneously convey a single bit along each line (parallel
movement). It connects multiple subsystems within the system.
19. A Bus could be Point-to-Point or Multipoint
20. A point-to-point bus connects two specific components
21. A Multipoint bus is shared by several devices
22. A typical bus consists of three main components:
- Data lines
- Control lines
- Address lines
23. Data lines: are dedicated to moving data (the actual information that must be moved).
24. Control lines: indicate which device has permission to use the bus and for what purpose
(reading or writing from memory or from an I/O device, …)
25. Adress lines: indicate the location (in memory, for example) that the data should be either
read from or written to.
26. Every computer contains at least one clock that synchronizes the activities of its components.
27. instruction performance is often measured in clock cycles instead of seconds.
28. The clock frequency, measured in MHz or GHz determines the speed with which all
operations are carried out.
29. Clock cycle time is the reciprocal of clock frequency: 𝑇 = 1/𝐹
30. Computer memory consists of a linear array of addressable storage cells that are similar to
registers.
31. byte addressable: Each byte has its own address (each memory row contains 8 bits only)
32. Word addressable: Each word has a unique address (each memory row contains one word
that can be larger than 8 bits).
33. Access is more efficient when memory is organized into banks of chips with the addresses
interleaved across the chips.

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MARIE
34. MARIE stands for: A Machine Architecture that is Really Intuitive and Easy.
35. The MARIE architecture has the following characteristics:
- Binary, two's complement data representation.
- Stored program, fixed word length data and instructions.
- 4K x 16 word-addressable main memory.
- 16-bit instructions: 4 bits for the opcode, 12 bits for the address.
- A 16-bit arithmetic logic unit (ALU).
- Seven registers for control and data movement.

36. List MARIE’s seven registers: AC,MAR,MBR,PC,IR,InREG,OutREG

37. AC: a 16-bit register that holds a conditional operator (e.g., "less than") or one operand of a
two-operand instruction.
38. MAR : a 12-bit register that holds the memory address of an instruction or an operand of an
instruction.
39. MBR: a 16-bit register that holds the data after its retrieval from, or before its placement in
memory.
40. PC: a 12-bit register that holds the address of the next program instruction to be executed.
41. IR: a 16-bit register that holds an instruction immediately preceding its execution.
42. InREG: , an 8-bit register that holds data read from an input device.
43. OutREG: Output register, an 8-bit register that holds data that is ready for the output device.
44. The registers are interconnected
45. A unique number that is set on the control lines whenever that device is required to carry
out an operation identifies each device on the bus
46. The ISA specifies the format of its instructions and the primitive operations that the machine
can perform

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47. The leftmost 4-bits indicate the Opcode or the instructions to be executed
48. In Skipcond, the next instruction is skipped, if the condition tested is true
49. Bits 11 and 10 in the address field specify the condition to be tested.
50. SKIPCOND 000 which means skip the next instruction if the AC <0.
51. SKIPCOND 400 which means skip the next instruction if the AC =0.
52. SKIPCOND 800 which means skip the next instruction if the AC >0.
53. At component level, each instruction involves multiple operations called micro-operations
54. RTL or RTN specifies the exact sequence of micro-operations that are carried out by an
instruction
55. An assembler directive is an instruction that is not supposed to be translated into machine
code.
56. List the directives of MARIE: ORG, DEC, OCT, HEX
57. The ORG directive controls the starting address of your program
58. JNS Allows us to store a pointer and then proceeds to set the PC to a different instruction.
59. indirect addressing: The address of the address of the operand is given in the instruction.
60. JumpI and AddI use indirect addressing
61. Addressing modes specify where an operand is located.
62. The effective address The actual location of an operand.
63. List the four focused-on addressing modes: Immediate, Direct, Indirect, Indexed
64. Immediate addressing: where the data is part of the instruction.
65. Direct addressing: where the address of the data is given in the instruction.
66. Indirect addressing: Gives the address of the address of the data in the instruction.
67. indexed addressing: uses a register (implicitly or explicitly) as an offset, which is added to the
address in the operand to determine the effective address of the data.

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1. Most computers are built using the Von Neumann model, which is centered on memory.
2. There are two kinds of main memory: RAM, ROM

3. RAM:
▪ RAM is a read-write memory.
▪ RAM is also the “main memory”
▪ RAM is used to store programs and data that the computer needs when executing
programs.
▪ RAM is volatile: it loses data once the power is turned off
▪ There are two general types of RAM memory in today’s computers: DRAM, SRAM
4. DRAM is constructed of tiny capacitors that leak electricity. It requires a recharge every few
milliseconds to maintain its data.
5. List the advantages of DRAM:
▪ It is much denser (can store many bits per chip),
▪ uses less power,
▪ less expensive,
▪ generates less heat than SRAM
6. SRAM holds its contents as long as power is available (No need for recharge). It consists of
circuits similar to the D flip-flops. It’s faster and more expensive than DRAM.
7. DRAM for main memory and SRAM for cache.
8. ROM:
▪ ROM stores critical information necessary to operate the system, such as the program
necessary to boot the computer.
▪ ROM is non-volatile and always retains its data.
▪ This type of memory is also used in embedded systems or any systems where the
programming does not need to change.
▪ Examples of Systems that uses ROM: toys, automobiles, calculators, printers.

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 ▪ There are five basic different types of ROM: ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash
memory
9. PROM:
▪ It can be programmed by the user with the appropriate equipment.
▪ Whereas ROMs are hardwired, PROMs have fuses that can be blown to program the chip.
▪ Once programmed, the data and instructions in PROM cannot be changed.

10. EPROM:
▪ is programmable and reprogrammable.
▪ Erasing an EPROM requires a special tool that emits ultraviolet light.
▪ To reprogram an EPROM, the entire chip must first be erased.
11. EEPROM:
▪ No special tools are required for erasure; Erasure is performed by applying an electric
field.
▪ Only portions of the chip can be erased, one byte at a time.
12. Flash memory:
▪ It’s essentially EEPROM, but faster
▪ It can be written or erased in blocks, removing the one-byte-at-a-time limitation.
13. The approach of using a combination of memory types to provide the best performance at the
best cost is called Hierarchical memory.
14. The base types that normally constitute the hierarchical memory system include:
Registers, cache, main memory, and secondary memory.
15. We classify memory based on its distance from the processor.
16. Distance is usually measured by the number of machine cycles required for access.
17. The closer memory is to the processor, the faster and smaller it should be.

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18. To access a particular piece of data:
▪ The CPU first sends a request to its nearest memory, usually cache.
▪ If the data is not in cache, then main memory is queried.
▪ If the data is not in main memory, then the request goes to disk.
▪ Once the data is located, then the data, and a number of its nearby data elements are
fetched into cache memory.

19. A Hit: is when data is found at a given memory level.

20. A Miss: is when it is not found.
21. The Hit Rate: is the percentage of time data is found at a given memory level.
22. The Miss Rate: is the percentage of time it is not found.
Note that: 𝑀𝑖𝑠𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 = 1 − 𝐻𝑖𝑡 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒.
23. The Hit Time: is the time required to access data at a given memory level.
24. The miss penalty: is the time required to process a miss, including the time that it takes to
replace a block of memory plus the time it takes to deliver the data to the processor.
25. Why the number of data’s nearby data elements are fetched into cache memory?
The hope is that this extra data will be referenced in the near future
26. After a miss, there is a high probability to achieve several hits, due to locality.
27. Locality of Reference is a way of organizing data inside memory in such a way that data nearly
requested will be closely located inside the memory.
28. This clustering of memory references into groups is an example of locality of reference.
29. There are three forms of locality: temporal, spatial, sequential
30. Temporal locality: Recently-accessed data elements tend to be accessed again.
31. Spatial locality: Accesses tend to cluster.
32. Sequential locality: Instructions tend to be accessed sequentially.
33. the purpose of cache memory is to speed up accesses by storing recently used data closer to the
CPU.

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34. cache is typically accessed by content; hence, it is often called content addressable memory
35. A typical cache access time is 10ns, composed of SRAM.
36. the CPU locate data when it has been copied into cache using a specific mapping scheme that
converts the main memory address into a cache location. It gives special significance to the bits
in the main memory address. We first divide the bits into distinct groups we call fields.
37. Main memory and cache are both divided into the size blocks (the size of these blocks varies).
38. When a memory address is generated, cache is searched first to see if the required word exists
there.
39. When the requested word is not found in cache, the entire main memory block in which the
word resides is loaded into cache.

40. Direct mapped cache assigns cache mappings using a modular approach. The equation: 𝑌 =
𝑋 𝑚𝑜𝑑 𝑁
41. A tag identifies each block that is copied to cache.
42. A valid bit is also added to each cache block to identify its validity.
43. To perform direct mapping, the binary main memory address is partitioned into three fields:
offset (word), block, tag
44. Offset (word) field : Uniquely identifies an address within a specific block (a unique word).
The number of words/bytes in each block dictates the number of bits in the offset field.
45. Block field: It must select a unique block of cache. The number of … in cache dictates the number
of bits in the block field.
46. Tag field: Whatever is left over!
47. In a fully-associative cache scheme, a main memory block can be placed anywhere in cache. The
only way to find a block mapped this way is to search all of cache.

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48. Using associative mapping, the main memory address is partitioned into two pieces: offset
(word) tag
49. With direct mapping, if a block already occupies the cache location where a new block must be
placed, the block currently in cache is removed
50. With fully-associative mapping, when cache is full, we need a replacement algorithm to decide
which block we wish to throw out of cache. The thrown-out block is called victim block.
51. Examples of Replacement algorithms: Least recently used (LRU), First In First Out (FIFO).
52. List the disadvantages of fully-associative mapping scheme:
▪ It requires a larger tag to be stored with the block (which results in a larger cache)
▪ It requires special hardware for searching of all blocks in cache simultaneously (which
implies a more expensive cache).

53. Set-associative cache mapping is a combination of direct and associative mapping schemes.

54. How does the N-way set associative cache mapping scheme work?
▪ The cache memory is divided into sets of N blocks
▪ Instead of mapping to a single cache block (as in direct-mapping scheme), an address
maps to a set of N blocks in cache
▪ Once the desired set is located, the cache is treated as associative memory
- The tag of the main memory address is compared to the tags of each valid block
in the set.

55. In set-associative cache mapping, the main memory address is partitioned into three pieces: tag,
word (offset), set

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