Essentials of Computer Architecture

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Essentials of Computer Architecture Rebecca S.M. Letswalo Dr. Aaron Bacon CIS 106- Introduction to Information Technology Strayer University 05/01/2014 Essentials of Computer Architecture Introduction Almost every individual uses a computer on a daily basis ; they have become a part of every aspect of our lives. We use computers for a personal, general or professional purpose but has anyone ever wondered how computers actually work? Of course it is not just by the simple push of the power button. It is all in how the computer is built and all the components involved in making the particular computer function. Looking at the definition of a computer we understand that; “A computer is a collection of hardware designed to run programs (software) and accomplish tasks.” (Anderson, Ferro, & Hilton, 2011, p. 99), and it is essential that we have an idea of the architectural aspect of them. The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the main and important part of any computer (Anderson, Ferro, & Hilton, 2011). This is where data is processed and then sent to the memory to perform the certain instructions (Abd-El-Barr & El-Rewini, 2005). This is also where the essential components of a computer are found. Von Neumann architecture is a certain type of structure of computers (Brunning, 2014) that was developed in the year 1944. Some computers today are built based on the Von Neumann architecture model and are called Von Neumann machines, and the main function of such architecture is to execute different types of tasks from instructions obtained from memory (Anderson, Ferro, & Hilton, 2011). In order to technically

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