Machine code
Computer
● Possible to arrange the various chips to perform tasks
● But, their function would be fixed
● We need to require the hardware to change the function
● We are interested in how we can build a general purpose computer, where the function is described by a program, and executed by a general
Stored Program
● Known as a stored-program computer
● Generally attributed to both Turing and Von Neumann
● Task encoded as a series of instructions executed by the machine
● These instructions, as well as the data, are represented by numbers
● Program needs to be stored somewhere
● con Neumann proposed the model used by the most computers today
● CPU can either fetch an instruction, or modify data, not both
● Known as the con Neumann bottleneck
● Can now make the computer do any task we want - just by loading a new program into the memory
● Program is expressed in machine code
Machine code
● Sits at the interface between Hardware and Software
Computer
● Possible to arrange the various chips to perform tasks
● But, their function would be fixed
● We need to require the hardware to change the function
● We are interested in how we can build a general purpose computer, where the function is described by a program, and executed by a general
Stored Program
● Known as a stored-program computer
● Generally attributed to both Turing and Von Neumann
● Task encoded as a series of instructions executed by the machine
● These instructions, as well as the data, are represented by numbers
● Program needs to be stored somewhere
● con Neumann proposed the model used by the most computers today
● CPU can either fetch an instruction, or modify data, not both
● Known as the con Neumann bottleneck
● Can now make the computer do any task we want - just by loading a new program into the memory
● Program is expressed in machine code
Machine code
● Sits at the interface between Hardware and Software
