Computer Architecture

Computer Architecture
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Computer Architecture
Von Neumann architecture is a type of computer architecture model that acts as a store-program digital computer. It uses a processing unit and a separate storage system that holds instruction and data. The processing unit is a combination of the control unit, which has the program counter and an instruction register and processor registers with an Arithmetic logic Unit (ALU). The memory unit is a block of shared storage registers that stores both data and instructions (Petterson & Lennessy, 2014). The memory block has a data bus and address bus for communication with the processor. A common bus characterizes a Von Neumann system. It functions to fetch instructions and data operations. This means handling of data and instructions has to be done in sequential order, which is known as Von Neumann Bottleneck, since the bus cannot operate in full duplex manner.
Von Neumann is one of the earliest computer architecture designs. However, due to its limiting bandwidth operation and underutilization of the processor meant it had to be modified to cater for this. Most modern computer architectures borrow heavily from the Von Neumann architecture, which had been considered incredibly successful at its time when processor demand was not highly required. In modern computer CPU chips, you will find a control unit and the ALU in the form of a RAM stick, which is located on the motherboard (Clements, 2006).
The Van Neumann architecture was highly significant since is it allowed a single memory to hold both data and program. Lack of such capabilities would mean disk based OS would not have been possible, which is common these days (Petterson & Lennessy, 2014). The other advantage was that the type of architecture was cheap to implement. This is clear since it reduced hardware components that required fewer wiring.
System bus is the main computer signal pathway that connects ma...