What this course will cover#

• Computer systems
• Generations
• Processors
• Memory
• Input Output

We also covered important concepts like having to know what a MUX is!

A lot of this first lecture was talking about a broad overview of what a CPU is, like how you can further break down a CPU into a Control Unit and a ALU.

Control unit#

We breifly talked about how a control unit is the center of a CPU’s “brain” and is responsible for directing input to the appropreate location. There was also a brief mention of single cycle vs multi cycle but sadly no further details.

Memory systems#

We also quickly looked over the idea of main memory vs cache memory vs mass memory and how depending on the type it can affect the speed significantly.

A computer system#

Finally we talked abot the idea of Von Neumann architecture, while the prof in class said it was created in 1936 it looks more like it was 1945. I think what my prof meant when talking about 1936 was a paper by Max Newman titled On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem which was talking about the concept of a universal computing machine.

We also talked about the idea of instructions being provided sequentially, which is where the MUX comes it!

Overall it was an interesting overview of what we will be covering in the class!