The following post will be
based on Nik’s opinion only. Sentences quoted were copy-pasted from certain
sites and sources were given after.
For
the laboratory activity, our professor told us to make a blog post about the
cover page of the book “Structure Computer Organization” written by Andrew
Tanenbaum. The following will be my personal interpretation of such cover..LOL.
o
Media Processor –is defined as “a microprocessor-based
system-on-a-chip which is designed to deal with digital streaming data in
real-time rates.” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_processor)
It is presented as a base of the building because it is the one who
o
Pipeline – is the “technique that allows multiple instructions to
be executed simultaneously.” (source: Computer Architecture and Assembly
Language by Anthony J. Dos Reis) Pipelining is the technique and it is
represented as such because it performs the instructions by a sequence of
stages.
o
Digital Logic Level
o
1Hz Clock – this image represents the clock frequency of the
computer.
o
Flip flop - flip flop is defined as "a circuit that can
switch between two states" (source: Computer Architecture and
Assembly Language by Anthony J. Dos Reis). And it is represented as a man
jumping on a trampoline because the state of position of that man too is
changing from up to down.
o
Dynamic RAM and Static RAM –
o
Microarchitecture level
o
Adder – is a defined as “a digital circuit that performs addition
of numbers”. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adder_(electronics) ). And
such image was used to represent because it shows the function of this
component.
o
Interpreter – is defined as “a program that executes a program at
the source level” (source: Computer Architecture and Assembly Language by
Anthony J. Dos Reis). The image show that
the woman there is the interpreter who is interpreting the
language/words of the Indian man which represents the program code for the
computer (the man in a suit) to understand the source code made.
o
ISA level
o
Embedded Computer – this is defined as “a specialized computer
system that is part of a larger system or a machine.” (source; http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/embedded_system.html
). The bed represents the machine (microwaves, cars, etc) while the computer
represents the system with instructions given on which the machine will follow.
o
Mouse and Trap – this will be similar to mousetrapping which is
defined as a “technique used by some websites to keep visitors from leaving their
site.” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mousetrapping).
The image gives us a mouse with cheese used as a trap. If that mouse (user)
will get that cheese (site) then surely it will be unable to leave since it
will be trapped.
o
Operating
system level
o
Race
– it is defined as “the behavior of an electronic or software system where the
output is dependent on the sequence or timing of other uncontrollable events…The
term originates with the idea of two signals racing each other to influence the
output first” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_condition)
The image shows two athletes on a race
which represents the signals while the finishing line would then be the output
of that race.
o
Operating
System – “is a collection of software that manages computer hardware resources
and provides common services for computer programs”. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system).
On the image, the doctor represents the OS while the patient there is
representing the hardware and software of the computer on which the doctor is
managing of.
o
Assembly
language level
o
Low-level
language and High-level language – low-level programming language is defined as
“a programming language that provides a little or no abstraction from a
computer’s instruction set architecture”. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-level_programming_language).
It is represented with a baby it is because low-level language is still
difficult to understand because of its abstractness. While the high-level
language is defined as “a programming language with strong abstraction from the
details of the computer.” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-level_programming_language).
It is represented by an already grown-up man because we can already understand
what it is saying.
o
Assembler
and Loader – assembler is “a computer program which translates from assembly
language to an object file or machine language format” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembler).
The image shows a man filing the files which works exactly as what the
assembler does. The loader is “the part of an OS that is responsible for
loading programs” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loader_(computing).
And the image shows a man loading those
boxes which represents the programs.
o
Branch prediction – it is the “process of predicting the next
instruction to be executed after a conditional branch instruction to minimize
the occurrence of a pipeline stall” (source: Computer Architecture and Assembly
Language by Anthony J. Dos Reis)
o
PCI express – is a “high-speed serial computer expansion bus
standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards”.
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express).
And it is represented with a full-speed bike because of how it works.
o
Cache – is defined as a “high-speed memory that holds a subset of
the contents of main memory” (source: Computer Architecture and Assembly
Language by Anthony J. Dos Reis). The dog here represents the high-speed memory
with the bones as the contents of that memory.
