CIE Computer Science IGCSE Unit 4. Computer Architecture

This unit of the course contains the explanations about the basics of the architecture on computers. Computer Architecture is one of the most difficult units in the IGCSE course due to its abstract contents.

The unit contains 32 pages divided into three sections:

• 1. Computer Architecture and
• 2. Embedded Systems.

This unit contains the following contents:

• an historical approach to the most important events in Computer Science before Von Neumann
• a wide explanation of the Von Neumann model (also called Stored Program Concept) including the most important parts of a computer system
• the explanation of the parts that compound a CPU including the Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU), the Control Unit (CU) and Registers.
• an introduction of the different types of memory that are included in the Memory Unit of a computer
• an explanation of the System Bus, their importance and the other buses included on it (Data bus, Control bus, Address bus)
• a deep explanation of the factors that affect the performance of a CPU
• an introduction of the concept of an Instruction Set included in every CPU
• a wide explanation of the concept of the Fetch-Decode-Execute Cycle with a lot of schemas and examples for better understanding
• an introduction to the concept of Embedded Systems, including the difference between microcontrollers, microprocessors and systems on chip (SOC)
• the advantages, disadvantages and applications of embedded systems

Syllabus objectives, schemes and graphics are provided for better understanding.