Chapter 9: Computer System Hardware

Chapter 9: Computer System Hardware

• What is a switch, and how does it work in a computer?
• What is the binary number system, and what role does it play in a computer system?
• What is inside the CPU, and how do these components operate?
• How does a CPU process data and instructions?
• What is cache memory?
• What types of RAM are there?
• What is a bus, and how does it function in a computer system?
• How do manufacturers make CPUs so that they run faster?

Discussion Questions

1. Consider the current limitations of the design of memory, how it is organized, and how a CPU operates. Think radically-what extreme ideas can you propose for the future of processor design? What do you think the limit of clock speed for a processor will be? How could a CPU communicate more quickly with memory? What could future cache designs look like?
2. The four stages of the CPU processing cycle are fetch, decode, execute, and store. Think of some real-world tasks you perform that could be described the same way. For each example, describe how it would be changed if it were pipelined. What additional resources would the pipelined task require?
3. Binary events, things that can be in one of only two positions, happen around you all the time. A common example is a light switch that is toggled on or off. How about a coin? It must always be either heads up or heads down. What other events or objects behave in a binary style?

EXTRA: Light, Sound, Magic: Representing Multimedia Digitally

• Explain how RGB color is represented in bytes - RGB Hexadecimal / Decimal Converter
• Change an RGB color by binary addition
• Explain concepts related to digitizing sound waves - Basics of Digital Audio
• Explain the difference between “bits” and “binary numbers”