Concept and main types of computer architecture.

In the 60s, leading programmers began to develop a new design, which includes a combination of hardware and software interaction and which has given rise to the definition of computer architecture. The architecture of computers has become an important detail in the computer world and remains so until now.

Concept and main types of computer architecture

The architecture of a computer is a multiple symbiosis of the joint action, configuration, and interconnection of the main logical nodes of a computer. This symbiosis serves to fulfill the tasks set by the user and encompass several factors that combine to create hardware and software, where the main stress is on generalizing the connections and principles inherent in various modifications of computer technology. For example, in the production of machinery, the main components of the equipment and its functionality may be the same, but the individual samples have a significant difference in price, speed, and productivity.

During the everyday work of any user, not only the efficiency and speed of the machine, but also its capabilities in solving certain tasks, are of considerable interest. As a result, the aggregate of these requirements of consumers has led to a significant development of the computer element base, which is distinguished by greater reliability and convenience in work. It is necessary to take into account that the increase in the speed of availability of individual elements is not unlimited, which is why leading experts see the solution of this issue in the modernization of computer architecture.

As a result of modernization of the computer, powerful computers with a multiprocessor architecture were created, which allows simultaneous operation of several processors. And, the more powerful the computer, the more in its work the processors are involved.

Main types of computer architecture

The entire computer system divides the types of computer architecture into three groups, due to the number of command and data streams, consider them:

• The founder of the classical architecture of the computers of the 1st and 2nd generation was John von Neumann, who formulated the basic principles of sequence. This group includes uniprocessor systems, in one case having a single data stream (SISD), and in the second one - a multiple data stream (SIMD). These types of architecture are due to a single vector stream of commands, while the data streams themselves are numerous.
• The next group, which includes the types of architecture - MIMD. It is a multiprocessor system with multiple command stream and the same data stream. This architectural system is mainly used in modern super-computers.
• And the last, third kinds of architecture are MISD, representing one program with a lot of data. Unfortunately, MISD has no practical significance. This kind is not considered a computer architecture, but a form of parallelization of programs. It means the simultaneous execution of two or more copies of one program in different processor modules with different data.

It is worth considering such an important direction in the development of the computer architecture, as data-flow machines. In the 1980s, it was assumed that the prospect of high computer performance is directly related to the controlled flow of computer data, in which these streams are capable of executing several commands, while the types of computer architecture considered above have computer systems controlled by the commands. In modern production, only a few elements of this approach have adopted, used in microprocessors containing many synchronously functioning functional devices waiting for the operands to be ready.