Answer To: Kent Institute Australia Pty. Ltd. Assessment Brief XXXXXXXXXXABN XXXXXXXXXXCRICOS Code: 00161E RTO...
Ali Asgar answered on Jun 14 2021
Content Analysis Report on Computer Architecture
Table of Contents
Introduction 2
Background 2
Content Analysis 3
Course Introduction 3
Week 1 3
Week 2 3
Components of a Computer 4
Week 3 4
Week 4 4
Week 5 5
Peripheral Devices and Connectivity 6
Week 6 6
Week 7 6
The Operating System and the file System 8
Week 8 8
Week 9 8
Virtualization and System Administration 9
Week 10 9
Week 11 9
Conclusion 10
References 10
Introduction
This is a content analysis report in the form of reflective journal that analyzes the topics covered in the course of Computer Architecture CARC103. The requirement of this assignment is to analyze the lecture material of weeks 1 to 11 and make a short content analysis summary of the various topic covered by analyzing the theoretical concepts contained in the course lecture slides.
We also need to describe our understanding of the topic covered in this course by highlighting the outcome from this course.
Background
We have been studying the course material for Computer Architecture Course CARC103 for the past 13 weeks and we have 11 weeks of lecture material. We have learnt a lot of theoretical and practical topics covered under this course. We started the course with the history of automated computing in the first week and moved on to the various data representation mechanisms available in the digital computer system. We learnt about various components of the computer system like Operating system, CPU, Hardware, I/O devices, the memory allocation and scheduling system, the networking components, concepts and standards etc. We also studied about the file system and various storage mechanisms. We ended the course on the topic of virtualization and the works and tasks performed by the IT system administrator.
Content Analysis
Course Introduction
Week 1
In the beginning of our course, we started our journey in the learning of Computer Architecture, with the discussion of the development of automated computing. In this we learnt the history of computation and the period when automated computers were first introduced to the world. The digital revolution began when the first electronic computer was developed in 1946 the ENIAC or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. A few years later UNIVAC 1 [Universal Automatic Computer] was developed in 1951 that made possible more sophisticated calculations faster and easier. Then with the invention of Integrated Circuits [ICs] the digital revolution gained momentum and we have reached today to a point where the computers have become a wearable device.
We then learnt about the general capabilities of a computer, how it was created to make possible huge calculations at a speed of few instructions per minute to the timeline of today where we can do teraflops of instructions every second. How computers way more powerful than the one used to send humans to space and moon, and bring them back safely, are being used today to submit university assignments.
We came to know about various computer hardware components and their functions, the functions and differences between RAM and ROM, the CPU and Hard disk Drives and other components of the computers that are used to connect to the internet and the world. We learnt about the classification of computer systems and the differences between. We also got knowledge about the components and functions of computer networks, and the roles, functions, and layers of application and system software.
Week 2
During our second week, we learnt about the language the computer uses that is BITs. A Bit is a binary number that has only 2 possible values 0 or 1. We learnt how the complex instructions and our daily work using all kinds of software we do are translated into the machine-readable zeros and ones using different type of numbering systems and how each system in data representation is used as per the type of work being done. We learnt about the ASCII codes, Hexadecimal numbering system, the conversion between different numbering system etc.
We also compared different data representation methods like the Big-Endian, Small-Endian, The One’s Complement and Two’s Complement number system. We summarize the various CPU data types and explained how non-numeric data is represented using American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) and UNICODE encoding mechanism where the alphabets and special characters are assigned a specific number each for representation, and numeric data is represented in the instruction set using the HEX values and Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCIDIC). How a negative number is represented without a sign in the final binary form etc. We also learnt about the various error checking mechanisms that are implemented.
At the end of the second week, we were familiar with the various types of commonly used data structures like Integers, Floating-Point Numbers (float), Double-precision Numbers (Double), Character Data-type, Strings, etc.
Components of a Computer
Week 3
During the third week we studied about the various CPU instruction, instruction sets and execution cycles. Here we learnt about the various steps involved in the execution cycle of an instruction. How an instruction is fetched, then the fetched instruction is decoded and the required data is read from memory location and then the instructions are executed and the operation is performed. We also came to know about the primitive CPU instructions, and how they are combined to form complex processing operations. How an instruction set of NOT, AND, OR, XOR, ADD and Shift can be combined in various combinations to create a complex set of operations that perform high-level tasks of todays computers. We also learnt that a CPU is capable of performing only one task per clock cycle even though it may appear to perform more than one.
We learnt about the main CPU designs and features like instruction format, word size, and clock rate. How every CPU contains an Arithmetic Logic Unit or ALU, that performs the logical operations; Process Register, which suppliers the operand on which the ALU operations are performed and a Control Unit, that controls all other operations like fetching data from the memory...