A) Describe the differences between each of the following "categories of computers : -Mainframe -Minicomputer -Microcomputer or Personal Computers Mainframe

A mainframe computer means a computer that can support thousand of application, input/output devices that will serve thousand of user. It is usually bulk in sizes, unchanged even through different generations of mainframe. The market for mainframe computers is dominated by IBMs Company especially through their Z mainframe series. A mainframe largely differs in organization, including the capability of running through system even when a new system is added without interrupts. It is also worth noted that mainframe specialization in virtualization. Somehow, IBM Minicomputer A minicomputer simply suggests a computer that sits between a mainframe and a minicomputer, or a simply wording midrange. Unfortunately, minicomputers only survived through 1980s in the mainstream market due to the introduction of low cost microprocessors and microcomputers. Among the operating system used in minicomputers are Fortran and Basic. Generally said, minicomputer is a form of mainframe with a largely reduced scale. They run on multiprocessors, operating systems and dedicated internal central processor. One example of minicomputers processor is also managed, develop their the 74181 ALU of the 7400 more cost-saving, homegrown series. It is 4 bit wide, but CPU as a strategy for their series the gradually challenged by of mainframes. A rather correct definition for mainframe is a the PDPs 12 bit and Data computer that host commercial Central Nova 16 bit databases, transaction server and processors.
application a high level of security and availability and of course reliable.

Microcomputer Microcomputers, or the commonly used term PC (Personal Computer) stand as the most consumed type of computer nowadays. Back in the early introduction of microcomputers, the small sized organization and architecture made it more individual based usage rather than large scale users. The term micro is based on the microprocessor used for their organization. It is also noted that microcomputer replaced the many separate components that are made up the minicomputers CPU with one integrated microprocessor chip. One of the early processor introduced for the microcomputer is the Intel chip 8008, a 8-bit processor running 0.8MHz clock speed.

B) Describe the differences between each of the following "types of computers : -notebooks -desktop -tablets -smartphone

COST -Desktops and laptops varied highly in their price range. With a budget of RM1800, you could find some decent performance desktop already. Add another RM300-RM400 you will hit yourself with a Corei5 laptops with dedicated graphic memory. With the high ends smartphones and tablets on the market price now, you will have to spend around RM2200++ to get Ipad 2 and Samsung Note 3. It could be said that those prices were quite inflated in Malaysia as we need to import them rather than having locally made factory for laptops and desktops.

PORTABILITY -Desktops have zero portability. The tower are big, monitor need to separately attached, other input output devices share the same fate too. You would rather place a desktop on a place where it belongs, on a desk. However, laptops which have almost the same hardware power are smoothly portable. Screens and keyboard attached, spreadsheet drivers would love doing their works on laptops. Some higher end models would have longer battery life. And some 19 models would feel a bit bulky too and their weight could almost reach 2kg. Smartphones are a bit bigger than the average phones but is highly portable. They would feet in almost any pockets and have the screen size up to 4.8. Keyboard is touch optional and speakers are all onboard. Simple tasks such as replying email and watching movies would be suitable for smartphones. The only major difference of tablets from smartphones is their screen size of 10. People tend to carry them like mini laptops. The larger screen size provides a bigger and more comfortable workspace.

Differences

OPERATING SYSTEM (OS) is the main interface between user and computer. Both desktops and laptops offer full-fledged operating system, such as Windows, OS x and multiples Linux Distribution. They are ideal for software developer and programmer, to such extend, and create application to be used on mobile OS. This is because they have sufficient computing power and memory allocation. Smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy S4 and the latest Iphone installment operates through Android OS and IOS respectively. In addition, some windows phone runs one scaled down version of Windows. Android OS are open source, creating thousands of apps to be downloaded, either free or paid, while IOS only limits their apps to Apple user.

MEMORY STORAGE -Desktops and laptops storage had reach over one terabyte (1TB) of memory drive. The bigger allocation is respective to the upgraded media distribution. Movies and games nowadays can be as big as 12 GB each. Certainly most smartphones and tablets could not handle those types of High Definition media. Currently, they could have up to 64GB built in memory and additional memory slot. To comply with their usage, such memory space is justified, as also processor and memory access speed they possess would not be sufficient to allocate much more than that.

C) Describe the similarities and differences between processors manufactured by (i) Intel (ii) AMD in terms of their organization and architecture.

In terms of microarchitecture, both Intel and AMD chips have a lot of similarities but some differences existed as different approach is emphasized. Basically, you can drop in an AMD CPU + motherboard in a unit that previously had an Intel CPU and motherboard and unless you look in the system properties to see what CPU is in there, you'd be hard-pressed to tell any difference. AMD AMD for desktop : Sempron, Athlon, Phenom, A-Series, FX AMD for Server: Opteron AMD x86 microarchitecture roadmap after K10: K10 ->Turion X2 Ultra -> Fusion -> Bobcat -> Bulldozer INTEL Intel for desktop : Celeron, Pentium, i3, i5, i7 Intel for Server: Itanium, Xeon E3, Xeon 5000, Xeon E5, Xeon E7 Intel x86 microarchitecture roadmap after P5: P5 -> P6 -> Core -> Nehalem -> Sandy Bridge >Haswell ->Skylake

Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) and Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) are terminology involved when discussing about instruction set architecture. The x86 architecture implementation that begins 30 years ago, are included in Intel i3/i5/i7, AMD Phenom, AMD Athlon. However, modern chips are said to have combination of RISC and CISC. Therefore, both of them have the advantage of this combination design. Thus, enabling both chips to run 32bit and 64bit system. Next is the memory hierarchy or memory design. Models from both manufacturer that are exampled in this matter are the FX-8320/8150 vs i7 2600. AMD FX-8150 Clockspeed Microarchitecture 3.6GHz .4.2GHz Turbospeed. Bulldozer Intel i7 2600 3.4GHz . 3.8GHz Turbospeed. Sandy Bridge

Cores L1 cache

L2 cache

L3 cache

Max memory bandwidth Virtual & physical memory addresses How caches are indexed

8 cores 4 modules 256 KB(I) 128 KB(D) 64KB per module(I) 16KB per core(D) 2-way set associative 4*2 MB Each 2MB is shared between 2 cores in one module 16-way associative 8 MB all core shared 64-way associative 21 GB/s 48-bit virtual and physical addresses not known

4 cores 4*32 KB(I) 4*32 KB(D) 4-way associative for instructions 8-way associative for data 4*256 KB Each 256KB is private to each core 8-way associative 8MB all core shared 16-way associative 21 GB/s 48-bit virtual addresses and 36-bit physical addresses L1: virtually indexed and physically tagged L2: physically indexed L3: physically indexed

From the table above, we can conclude that both AMD and Intel share almost the same memory design. Both have multiple levels of caches. This particular design in chips is important to aid processor to fetch data quickly and avoid misses. As for comparison, we can conclude that both manufacturer use similar design concept. The reason why the price of AMD is lower than Intel is that its performance is not good as Intel processor. Besides that, those specifications indicate that having more core and pipeline stages does not necessarily bring beter performance. The reason Bulldozer has more cores may be because its individual core is not as good as i7s.

D) What is ARM architecture. Explain why processors using ARM architecture are popular among tablets and smartphones. ARM is derived from the words Advanced RISC Machines. It was first developed by Acorn Computers back in 1980. The architecture for ARM is based from Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC). Acorn Computers, Apple and VLSI Technology then introduced ARM holdings in 1992. Generally said, an ARM processor consists of load/store architecture, an orthogonal instruction set, single-cycle execution, a 16x32 bit register and most importantly, power saving design. The first ever ARM processor is the ARM1 with ARMv1 architecture to the latest ARMv7-A architecture. Initial releases by ARM was to compete the x86 monopoly back then. The 32 bit architecture for arm consists of 3 profiles: Application profile (Cortex A-series), Real-time profile (Cortex-R series) and Microcontroller profile(Cortex-M) series. ARM also introduced their 64 bit architecture named ARMv8-A, later in the market. The latest Samsung Galaxy S4 is powered by the ARM Cortex-A15 and Cortex A-7. One discrete aspects of ARM marketing is its core licensing availability which enable 3rd party to develop their own processor based on ARM architecture. The key for ARM architecture popularity in mobile devices is its low power consumption and low cost. This important aspect created a gap from Intel x86 chips. If you count how many ARM processors in every smartphones, tablets and laptops today, they outnumbered Intel chip 4 to 1. To enforce this issue, ARM really focused on low power consumption from the beginning. That aspect alone makes it greatly desirable for mobile devices, as battery consumption will be minimized. ARM business model is also fueling to this success. They license their technology than manufacturing their own chips. Many chips with ARM processors include things such as A/D converters, counter/timers, capacitive touch controllers, LCD controllers, USB, Wifi baseband, etc. ARM chips now had built in function to disable idle peripherals, leading to more power saving usage, rather than including separate power management modules into devices.

E) Prepare a table of comparisons to compare the processors used in tablets and smartphones in term of the type of ARM processors (eg: cortex A8 etc) , number of cores (1, 2 ,4 etc) and types of system on a chip that they are using (eg: Snapdragon etc).

Model Iphone 5s Apple Ipad 2 HTC One Nexus 10 Nexus 7 Samsung Galaxy Tab 3.10.1 Samsung Galaxy S4

ARM processors Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 Krait 300 Cortex-A15 Krait 300 Intel Atom Z2560 Soc processor Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 (GTI9500 ) Krait 300 (GTI9505 ) Octa-core Cortex-A15 Cortex-A7 (GSM version) Krait 400 (LTE version)

Number Of Cores 2 2 4 2 4 2

System on A Chip (SOC) Apple A7 Apple A5 Qualcomm Snapdragon 600(GT-I9505 ) Samsung Exynos 5250 Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ80641AA Intel Atom Z2560 SoC processor Samsung Exynos 5 Octa (GT-I9500 ) Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (GT-I9505 ) Exynos 5 Octa 5420 (GSM version) Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (LTE version)

4 4 4 4 4 4

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

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College of Information Technology Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) CSNB123: Computer Organizations Semester 2 2013/ 2014 Assignment 1 (Final)

Name : Muhamad Akhmal Haziq Bin Abd Halim Student ID : SN093931 Email : adimal94@yahoo.com Phone No. : 012 7204086 Lecturer Name : Abd Rahim Ahmad