Computer Performance and Reliability
- The combination of components, devices, buses & ports working together
Modular design
- Lots of different parts w individual functions put together to function as a whole
- Not a single unit
- All pieces connect via cards/cables
- Put together in pieces for the user’s requirements
- Advantages
- repair one single component without having to repair the whole
- simplifies upgrading (upgrade a single component)
- variety of components → customisable for the user’s needs
Improving processor speed
- Hyperthreading
- hardware
- duplicating registers
- preloads instructions into one set while other processes
- appears to do 2 things at a time
- Multiprocessing
- hardware
- multiple cores on a CPU chip
- parallel processing
- Multitasking
- software
- switching between tasks in the CPU
- 2 different processes
- Multithreading
- software
- switching between threads of the same program
- Processor cache
- stores pre-fetched instructions from RAM
- most frequent or most recent
- L1: in CPU circuits, as fast
- L2: on CPU but further, slower
- L3: on motherboard, slower
- Register size
- how much data can be processed at one time
- holds currently being processed data
- 32 bit or 64 bit
- SRAM: fast, expensive
- Bus size
- data transmitted at one time
- wider bus = more addresses are addressed
- Overclocking
- using clock multiplication (multiplying the system clock by a factor)
- to make components run faster than intended
1
, - per component: changing individual clock multiplication factor
- whole system: changing the system clock
- increase power consumption, heat, can become unstable
Onboard controllers
- Hardware embedded into a circuit board
- Sound card, network card, GPU
- Cannot be removed
- Can be disabled through software/CMOS setup
Expansion cards
- Connected via slots on motherboard
- PCI, graphics card slots
- Can be removed
Co-processors
- Assistant to the CPU
- Takes over some processing
- Improves processor speed
- Integrated graphics
- GPU embedded in CPU
- shared system RAM
- slower but more affordable, less heat & power
- GPU
- translates bits to image
- does complex mathematical & geometric calculations for graphics rendering
- parallel processing
- graphics card has: motherboard connection, processor, memory, monitor
- VRAM: video, stores pixel info (colour & location)
- Maths co-processor
- process complex calculations using numeric data
- large floating point number calculations quickly
- higher cost, greater power consumption
Increasing RAM (speed, size)
- RAM
- volatile, stores all loaded programs & data
- Want high frequency, low latency
- Frequency affects maximum bandwidth (total data can be processed at a time)
- Latency affects speed (time it takes to load stuff)
- Virtual memory
- slower secondary storage (portion of hard drive)
- increases size of RAM
- slows swapping instructions down
- paging file: data stored in virtual memory
2
- The combination of components, devices, buses & ports working together
Modular design
- Lots of different parts w individual functions put together to function as a whole
- Not a single unit
- All pieces connect via cards/cables
- Put together in pieces for the user’s requirements
- Advantages
- repair one single component without having to repair the whole
- simplifies upgrading (upgrade a single component)
- variety of components → customisable for the user’s needs
Improving processor speed
- Hyperthreading
- hardware
- duplicating registers
- preloads instructions into one set while other processes
- appears to do 2 things at a time
- Multiprocessing
- hardware
- multiple cores on a CPU chip
- parallel processing
- Multitasking
- software
- switching between tasks in the CPU
- 2 different processes
- Multithreading
- software
- switching between threads of the same program
- Processor cache
- stores pre-fetched instructions from RAM
- most frequent or most recent
- L1: in CPU circuits, as fast
- L2: on CPU but further, slower
- L3: on motherboard, slower
- Register size
- how much data can be processed at one time
- holds currently being processed data
- 32 bit or 64 bit
- SRAM: fast, expensive
- Bus size
- data transmitted at one time
- wider bus = more addresses are addressed
- Overclocking
- using clock multiplication (multiplying the system clock by a factor)
- to make components run faster than intended
1
, - per component: changing individual clock multiplication factor
- whole system: changing the system clock
- increase power consumption, heat, can become unstable
Onboard controllers
- Hardware embedded into a circuit board
- Sound card, network card, GPU
- Cannot be removed
- Can be disabled through software/CMOS setup
Expansion cards
- Connected via slots on motherboard
- PCI, graphics card slots
- Can be removed
Co-processors
- Assistant to the CPU
- Takes over some processing
- Improves processor speed
- Integrated graphics
- GPU embedded in CPU
- shared system RAM
- slower but more affordable, less heat & power
- GPU
- translates bits to image
- does complex mathematical & geometric calculations for graphics rendering
- parallel processing
- graphics card has: motherboard connection, processor, memory, monitor
- VRAM: video, stores pixel info (colour & location)
- Maths co-processor
- process complex calculations using numeric data
- large floating point number calculations quickly
- higher cost, greater power consumption
Increasing RAM (speed, size)
- RAM
- volatile, stores all loaded programs & data
- Want high frequency, low latency
- Frequency affects maximum bandwidth (total data can be processed at a time)
- Latency affects speed (time it takes to load stuff)
- Virtual memory
- slower secondary storage (portion of hard drive)
- increases size of RAM
- slows swapping instructions down
- paging file: data stored in virtual memory
2
