Unit 4: Computer Architecture

- Central Processing Unit

➔ It is also known as a microprocessor or processor
➔ A microprocessor is a type of integrated circuit on a single chip.
➔ Has the responsibility of the execution and processing of all the instructions
and data in a computer application.
➔ The CPU consists of a control unit (CU), arithmetic and logic unit (ALU), registers
and buses, and a system clock.
➔ CPU is a part of Von Neumann architecture
➔ Von Neumann architecture was introduced in the mid-1940s by John von
Neumann.
➔ It had the following main features:

 concept of a CPU
 CPU could directly access the memory
 storage of programs and data by computer memories
 Stored programs were made up of instructions that had to be followed or
executed in a sequential order

➔ The following are components of a CPU:

1) Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU)

➔ Allows the required arithmetic or logic operations to be carried out

2) Control Unit (CU)

➔ Reads instruction from the memory
➔ The CU ensures the synchronisation of data flow and program instructions
throughout the computer by sending out control signals.
➔ The system clock is used to produce timing signals on the control bus to ensure
this vital synchronization takes place

➔ The RAM holds all the data and programs needed by the CPU
➔ RAM is also often referred to as the Immediate Access Store or IAS

3) Registers
➔ The registers in our syllabus are:

- Memory
➔ Computer memory is made of a number of partitions
➔ Each partition has an address with its content
➔ The address will uniquely identify every location in the memory and the
contents will be binary values stored in each location
- Fetch-Decode-Execute Cycle
➔ To carry out a set of instructions, the CPU first fetches some data and
instructions from memory and stores them in suitable registers. The address and
data bus are used in this.
➔ Once fetched, each instruction needs to be decoded before being executed
➔ This cycle is known as Fetch-Decode-Execute or FDE cycle

PC contains the address of the memory location of the next

instruction that has to be fetched, the memory address of the
instruction is copied to MAR from the PC. The address bus is used
here, the contents/ instructions/data at the memory location or
address in the MAR are temporarily copied in the MDR from
memory (RAM) using the data bus, The contents or instructions of
the MDR are then copied and placed in CIR, The PC is
incremented by 1. This means the next instruction is ready to be
copied and decoded. The content or instructions stored in CIR/IR
are decoded. The CPU sends out signals through the control bus
to the respective components (e.g Arithmetic and Logic Unit) of
the computer to execute the instruction, if required.

- Cores, Cache and Internal clock

➔ Other components that make up part of the CPU and can make a significant
difference to the overall operating speed of a computer

1) Clock Speed
➔ Refers to the number of electrical pulses that the clock inside the CPU can
produce each second. Usually measured in Hz or GHz.
➔ Increasing the clock speed can increase the processing speed as more
instructions than before will be addressed in the same time
2) Cores
➔ More cores will improve overall computer performance
➔ Each core includes an ALU, CU and registers

3) Cache
➔ Use of cache memory can also improve CPU performance
➔ Cache memory is located in the CPU itself, and hence has much faster
data access time than RAM
➔ It allows for faster data access as it stores the instructions and data that
needs to be accessed frequently, improving CPU performance

Instruction Set
➔ A set of common instructions have been developed by processor
manufacturers so that CPUs operate as efficiently as possible
➔ Operations are made up of opcodes and operands.
➔ Opcodes are stored on the computer's hard disc, and would usually be
copied into the RAM. when the computer is powered on. The most regularly
used opcodes would then be shifted from RAM to the cache memory.
➔ Operand is the data that needs to be acted on
➔ The operand may be a piece of data itself, or it may be an address location
within the main RAM or register.

- Embedded Systems
➔ Embedded systems are built into devices to carry out specific tasks. They
run on firmware and do not have additional peripherals.
➔ Embedded systems have a microprocessor, either analogue or digital
input, a user interface and output.
➔ Examples of embedded system include: motor vehicles, set-top box,
security systems, lighting systems, vending systems, washing machines.
 Input Devices
1) Barcode Scanners (Readers)
➔ Barcodes are a series of dark and light parallel lines that represent
numbers from 0 to 9

2) QR codes
➔ QR codes are a type of barcode made up of a matrix of filled-in dark
squares on a light background.
➔ They hold considerably more information than traditional barcodes

4) Digital Cameras
➔ Modern digital cameras can connect to a computer system via USB or
Bluetooth

5) Microphones
➔ Are either build-in or connected through a USB or Bluetooth connection
➔ A microphone converts sound waves into an electric current

6) Optical Mouse

➔ An optical mouse has no moving parts and is more reliable, with no dirt
traps or special surface requirements.

7) 2D Scanners
➔ Input devices that are used to convert paper documents to digital form

8) 3D Scanners
➔ Scans solid, 3D objects in x, y, z directions
 9) Touch Screens
➔ The common types of touch screen technologies are:

Capacitive
Composed of a layer of glass (protective layer), a transparent
electrode (conductive layer) and a glass substrate.
Infra-red
An invisible grid of infra-red beams is made; infra-red beams are sent
out from two edges of the screen.
Resistive
Uses multiple layers of material.

Output Devices
1) Actuators
➔ An actuator is a mechanical or electromechanical device that is used to perform
an action

2) Light Projectors:
➔ Projector are used to project computer outputs onto larger sized screens or
whiteboards
➔ There are two common types of light projectors: DLP and LCD

Digital Light Processing (DLP) Projector:

➔ DLP projectors use a DMD chip, which have millions of micro mirrors

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Projector:

➔ LCD projectors use a high intensity light beam to produce an image on a screen
3) Inkjet Printer
➔ Usually have a print head (consists of nozzles that sprays ink droplets), ink
cartridge/s, a stepper motor and belt, and a paper feed
➔ Ink droplets are produced using two different technologies; thermal bubble and
piezoelectric

4) Laser Printer
➔ Use dry powder
➔ Uses static electricity to print text and images
➔ Prints the whole document in one go
➔ Usually prints monochrome documents but also supports coloured printing

5) 3D Printers
➔ Produces 3D objects
➔ The mechanism is primarily based on inkjet and laser technologies
➔ The object is made layer by layer, using materials such as powdered resin,
metal, ceramic, etc.
➔ There are two types of 3D printing: direct 3D and binder 3D printing

6) LED screens
➔ A screen is made up of tiny lights emitting diodes (LEDs)
➔ LED screens are not a frontlit display
➔ Each LED is either red, green or blue and are controlled to create different
colours
7) LCD screens
➔ Made up of tiny liquid crystals
➔ These crystals make up an array of pixels that are affected by changes in applied
electric fields

8) Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED)

➔ Use organic materials to create flexible semiconductors
➔ Organic films are added between two charged electrodes - one metallic and the
other of glass

↳ Layers are thin, light and flexible; they bend into any shape
➔ Advantages of OLED over LCD and LED:

↳ Light emitting layers are very lightweight as they can also be made from plastic
↳ No backlighting is needed
↳ Has a very large field of view
↳ brighter light than LEDs

9) Loud Speakers
➔ Produce sound

Sensors
➔ Sensors are input devices that measure physical data (e.g: temperature, light,
etc.) from their
surroundings

Example of an automated security system:

↳ Acoustic (to detect the sound of an intruder’s footsteps)

➔ Sensors used:
↳ Pressure (to detect the weight of the intruder coming through window
↳ Infra-red (to detect the presence of the intruder)
↳ Proximity sensor (to detect the presence of the intruder)

➔ The sensors continuously input data from their surroundings

➔ This data is sent to the microprocessor, where it is converted from analogue to
digital data using
an ADC (Analogue to Digital Convertor)
➔ The microprocessor compares these values to pre-set values for each sensors
➔ If one or more of them is beyond the pre-set values, it mean there is an intruder
➔ The microprocessor sends a signal to the actuators to sound the alarm, send a
message to the homeowner, call the police, etc.
➔ If the values are equal to these pre-set values, no action is taken
➔ This process is continuous

Data Storage
- Memory and Storage:

↳ primary memory
➔ Memory and storage can be divided into two different groups

↳ secondary storage

Primary Memory
➔ Part of the computer memory accessible directly from the CPU
➔ Includes RAM and ROM memory chips

- RAM
↳ can be written to or read from; is editable
➔ RAM has the following features:

↳ used to store data, files, parts of applications which are currently in use, etc.
↳ it is volatile (its contents are lost when it is powered off)
➔ There are two types of RAM: DRAM and SRAM

- ROM
➔ Memory data cannot be changed or written to
➔ They are non-volatile
➔ Are permanent memories
➔ Contents can only be read
➔ Store BIOS (Basic Input Output System) or start up instructions

Secondary Storage
➔ Known as off-line storage as well
➔ Not directly addressable by the CPU
➔ Non volatile
➔ Stores more data than primary memory, but the data access time is longer than
that for primary
memory
➔ Three types of secondary storage technologies: magnetic, solid state, optical

1) Magnetic Storage: Hard Disc Drives (HDDs)

➔ Data is stored in a digital format on magnetic platters in a hard disk drive
(HDD)
➔ HDDs have multiple platters that can spin at high speeds, and the read-write arm
moves across
the storage media

2) Solid State Storage: Solid State Drives (SSD)

➔ Solid state drives (SSDs) offer many advantages over HDDs: no issue of
latency, no moving parts, and faster data retrieval
➔ SSDs use NAND or NOR gates to store data, which is stored as 0s and 1s in tiny
transistors acting as floating gates and control gates

3) Solid State Storage: Memory sticks/Flash memories:

➔ Use solid state technology

4) Optical Storage: CD/DVD discs

➔ CDs and DVDs are optical storage devices that use laser light to read and write
data from their surfaces.

5) Optical Storage: Blu-Ray

➔ Blu-ray discs are optical storage media that use a blue laser for read-write
operations, compared to CDs/DVDs, that use a red laser

6) Virtual Memory
➔ Virtual memory compensates for the limited physical memory (RAM) in a
computer
➔ It creates an illusion of more memory by using space on the hard drive as
additional RAM

7) Cloud Storage
➔ Cloud storage stores data on remote servers accessed through networks, mainly
the internet
➔ It can be categorized into public, private, and hybrid cloud models based on
ownership and management.
➔ Public cloud storage is offered by third-party providers and available for public
use
➔ Private cloud storage is dedicated infrastructure managed by an organisation,
while hybrid combines public and private models
Network hardware
➔ A computer requires an NIC (Network Interface Card) to connect to a network

- MAC (Media Access Control) Address:

➔ An NIC is given a MAC address at the time of manufacturing
➔ MAC addresses are 48-bit addresses that are usually written in hexadecimal
➔ They are unique addresses that help identify a device on a network

- Structure
➔ MAC addresses are made up of six groups of two hex digits (8 bits)
➔ They are created from the manufacturer code and the serial code

- IP (Internet Protocol) Addresses

➔ IP addresses are 32- or 128-bit addresses written in hexadecimal
➔ They are mostly unique and are used to identify a device on a network
➔ IP addresses are assigned by an ISP (Internet Service Provider) or a router of a
network
➔ There are IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
- Static IP addresses
➔ These IP addresses, as the name dictates, never change
➔ Suitable for websites, online databases, etc.

- Dynamic IP addresses
➔ These addresses change whenever the device logs on to the internet

- Routers
➔ Routers are devices that are a part of a network and perform many different
functions
➔ They assign IP addresses

Unit 5: Internet and its Uses

- Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)

➔ A URL is a text-based address for a web page; it can contain the protocol, the
domain name and
the web page/file name
➔ Web browsers are software that allows user to access and display web pages on
screen
➔ They interpret HTML sent from websites and presents the results on the screen
➔ URLs are text addresses used to access websites

- HTTP and HTTPS

➔ HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol
➔ It is a set of rules that must be obeyed when transferring files across the
internet

- Web browsers
➔ Web browsers are software that allow a user to access and display web pages
on device's screen
➔ Browsers translate/interpret/render the HTML and show the result in its
respective form, such as audio, video and more

- Cookies
➔ Cookies are small files or codes stored on a user's computer

➔ There are two types of cookies: Sessions and persistent cookies.

- Digital Currency
➔ Digital currency is currency that exists only in digital form
➔ It has no physical form, unlike notes, coins, and more

➔ Cryptocurrency uses cryptography to track transactions

- Blockchaining
➔ Blockchain is a decentralised database
➔ Blockchain, in its basic form, is a digital ledger, that is a time-stamped series of
records that cannot be altered

Cyber Security
➔ Data can be corrupted or deleted, either through accidental damage or
malicious acts.

- Brute Force Attack

➔ The hacker tries different combinations of passwords until he/she cracks it; this
is known as a brute force attack.

- Data Interception
➔ Data interception is a form of stealing data by tapping into a wired or wireless
communication link
- Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks
➔ A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is an attempt at preventing the users from
accessing part of a network, usually an internet server.

- Hacking
➔ It is the act of illegally gaining access to a computer system without the owner’s
permission.

- Malware
➔ There are many forms of malware, all of them are important for the 2023, 2024
and 2025 syllabus exams. So, we will study all of them in detail.

1 Viruses:
➔ Viruses are programs or program code that can copy themselves with the
intention of deleting or corrupting files, and also cause computer
malfunctioning.

2 Worms
➔ Worms are stand-alone type of malware that can self-replicate

3 Trojan Horse
➔ It is a malware program disguised as an authentic, legitimate software

4 Spyware
➔ It is a software that gathers the user’s information by monitoring the
user's activities on their computer

5 Adware
➔ It is the least harmful malware
➔ Its aim is to engage users with advertisements or click on them

6 Ransomware:
➔ Its aim is to gain money from the victim
➔ These are algorithms that encrypt data on the user's computer and hold
it ‘hostage’
- Phishing
➔ Its aim is to obtain personal information from the user
➔ It occurs when the attacker sends legitimate-looking emails to the users

- Pharming
➔ It is malicious code installed on the user's computer

- Social Engineering
➔ It occurs when the attacker creates a social situation that often leads to a
potential victim dropping their guard.

Ways to keep data safe from threats

1 Access Levels
➔ Users are assigned different levels of access depending on the role
they have. This means it controls the behaviour and access of users.

2 Anti-Malware
➔ This protects the devices and the data on the network.
➔ There are two types of anti-malware: anti-virus and
anti-spyware

3 Authentication
➔ This type of security authenticates the user; it makes the user prove
that they are authorised for accessing data, for example
➔ There are various ways for authentication, such as passwords,
biometrics, and two-step verification

4 Automatic software update:

➔ This ensures that applications like anti-virus and others are always
operating with their latest versions installed
- Firewalls
➔ A firewall can be either software or hardware
➔ It sits between the user's computer and an external network and
filters information in and out of the computer.

- Privacy settings
➔ Privacy settings are the controls available on web browsers, social
networks and other websites that are designed to limit who can access
and see a user's personal profile.

- Proxy Server
➔ Proxy servers act as an intermediate between a user and web server

- Secure Socket Layer (SSL)

➔ It is a protocol or set of rules that must be followed for the safe
transmission of data online.

➔ SSL encrypts the connection between the user's computer and

website being used.
Unit 6:Automated Technologies

Automated Systems
➔ An automated system is a combination of software and hardware that is
designed and programmed to work automatically without the need of any human
intervention with the use of sensors, microprocessors and actuators.

Robotics
➔ Robotics is a branch of computer science that incorporates the design,
construction and operation of robots
➔ Examples: factory equipment, drones, and domestic robots
↳ electronic components, such as actuators, sensors, and microprocessors
Characteristics of a robot

↳ mechanical structure or framework

↳ programmable

➔ There are two types of physical robots (software robots are not physical,

1 Independent robots:
working bots):

- have no direct human control (are autonomous)

- can replace human activity totally (no human intervention required)

2 Dependent robot
- has human control
- can temporarily replace human activity

Artificial Intelligence
➔ Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that deals with the
simulation of intelligent behaviours by a computer.

1 Collecting data
➔ Characteristics of AI:

2 Stores rules for using the data

3 The ability to reason
4 The ability to learn
5 The ability to adapt
6 The ability to change its own rules
7 The ability to change its own data

1 narrow AI: better at doing one specific task compared to a human

➔ The three categories of AI:
2 general AI: similar at doing one specific task compared to a human
3 strong AI: much better at doing many different tasks compared to human

➔ The AI system is capable of learning and adapting to its surroundings

➔ Can make predictions on the collected new data

1 smart home devices such as Alexa and Siri

➔ Examples of AI:

2 chatbots
3 autonomous cars
4 facial features recognition

1 Expert System
➔ There are two types of AI (only these are to be studied):

2 Machine Learning

- Expert System
➔ A type of AI that has been developed to mimic human knowledge and
experiences
➔ Has a knowledge base, and inference engine, and interface, and a rules base
➔ Uses knowledge and inference to solve problems or answer questions that
would normally require a human expert