Revision Tutorial – Introduction to the PC Product

Tutorial Questions A1 to A7

George South

Involves material for Q1 and Q2 - compulsory questions in

exam1

Some companies involved in microprocessor technology• Microsoft $251 billion Market Capitalisation• Apple $186 billion• IBM $171 billion• Google $168 billion• HP $120 billion

• Intel $113 billion• Dell $26 billion• Nokia $50 billion• Microchip Technology Inc $5 billion

• AMD £5 billion ARM £5 billion (1-Mar-10)

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A1 – Major stages in PC Product

IBM-PC8088

PC-bus

IBM-AT80286AT-bus

IBM-PS/280386

MCA-bus

!!!

ISA-PC80386

ISA-bus

ISA-PC80486

ISA/VL bus

PCPentium Era

PCI/ AGP

PCCore 2

PCI/ PCIe PCCore i3/i5/i7

PCIe

netbookx86-Atom

WiFi

Clock speed sells

x86-AtomSmartphone

Nokia ??

PowerPCNot x86

RISC-1994

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A1 Success of PC Product

• Simple design – no ASICs

• PC-bus allowed very easy reconfiguration

• Low cost 8-bit motherboard• 8088 processed 16-bit data internally with

hardware multiply, divide etc

• 8087 co-processor could perform 80-bit arithmetic (1981 !)

• 8088 had 20-bit address bus ( 1 MByte)4

A1 PC as de facto standard

• PC was very popular so a volume market• Excellent performance/ price ratio• Application developers considered PC

product would be long lifed – hence many innovative products e.g. Office tools, low cost networking

• Having invested effort in learning Windows skills users wanted same environment at home

5

A1 Modern PC performance

• A modern PC may have 10,000 times the performance of the original PC

• As we saw in the lab most PCs have about 50 tasks active e.g. Windows Update/ Virus checker etc

• However unless processing serious multimedia content - a PC may be running the System Idle Process for 99% of time

• Performance is of course crucial for mm6

A2 Success of PC/ISA Architecture

• Developers want a stable hardware platform

• However there is no standards authority for PCs

• Standards for the PC were initiated by IBM and continue to be updated by Intel/ AMD (x86 processors and chipsets) and Microsoft (OS)

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A2 Compliance

• If you are a hardware manufacturer, the basic rules for the design of a PC require compliance with the design rules embedded in, say, the Intel chipsets

• The BIOS then ensures that the hardware is initialised usually to provide basic operation prior to the loading of the OS

• Windows provides basic device drivers for compliant hardware

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A2 Alternatives to the PC

• Apple Mac products

• Now use same x86 processors/ chipsets as PCs

• Well regarded for good design and usability

• Relatively expensive

• No clones• 10% of Personal Computer market

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A2 Alternatives to the PC

• Games consoles

• e.g. Xbox 360/ PS3/ Wii

• These use processors based on the IBM PowerPC e.g. 3.2 GHz PowerPC Tri-Core

• Hardware is optimised for graphics

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A3 x86 Legacy

• Legacy – e.g. retention of low level hardware features means that: √ old software will run on new hardware

√ new software will run on old hardware√ 32-bit applications can migrate smoothly to a

64-bit environment as necessary! Hardware designs cannot take advantage of

latest architectural ideas – e.g. RISC - ARM! Hardware gets complex

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A4 Comparison of PC Products

• A - Intel® Celeron® Processor 900 (2.20 GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB, Intel 64) 45 nm, $70, 410 million transistors, Core 2 Penryn, released Q1 2009

• B - Intel® Core™ i5-650 (3.2 GHz, 2 Cores, 4 Threads, turbo boost up to 3.46 GHz, 4 MB smart cache) 32 nm, $176, 382 million transistors, Nehalem Clarkdale released Q1 2010

•

• C - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-920 quad-core processor (2.66GHz, 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache) 45 nm, $284, 731 million transistors, Nehalem Bloomfield released Q2 2009

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A4 Comparison of PC Products

budget prof enthusiast• Turbo Boost No Yes Yes• Hyper-Threading No Yes Yes• Virtualization Tech No Yes Yes• Intel 64 Yes Yes Yes

• Speedstep No Yes Yes• Ex Disable Bit Yes Yes Yes• Trusted Execution No Yes No• AES (encryption) No Yes No• Active Management No Yes No

Product B for the Professional Market13

A4 Comparison of PC Products

A – budget (older technology) – slide 22• GM45 chipset (2 chips) plus ICH9 for IO

support – FSB technology

B – Professional PC – slide 23• Q57 chipset (one chip) - See Topic 7 pack –

DMI technology

C – Enthusiast’s PC – slide 24• X58 (2 chips) plus ICH10 - QPI technology

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A4 Comparison of PC Products

A – budget PC• DDR2 DRAM – 3 GBytes (max = 4 GBytes)• Integrated graphics - GMA 4500MHD

B – Professional PC• DDR3 DRAM – 4 GBytes (max = 8 GBytes)

• Integrated graphics - Intel® HD Graphics

C – Enthusiast’s PC • DDR3 DRAM - 6 GBytes (max = 24 GBytes)• PCIe graphics - 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4650 15

A4 Comparison of PC Products

A – budget PC• Disks - 4 SATA 1.5 Gbits/sec• 250GB (5,400rpm) Hard Drive

B – Professional PC

• Disks - 6 SATA 3 Gbits/sec• mobile - 320GB (5,400rpm)

C – Enthusiast’s PC

• Disks - 6 SATA 3 Gbits/sec

• 750GB 7200 rpm

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A5 Trends in PC Product

• MID Mobile Internet Device– Computer with a fast internet connection

WiFi, WiMAX or G3/G4/LTE mobile comms

– Netbook using the Intel Atom processor

– iPad using the Apple A4 RISC processor

• The Cloud (internet)– Using remote servers e.g. from Google to run

applications and store data

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A6 Future of non-Windows OS

• Windows is dominant in the desktop and notebook market

• There will be a massive battle in the MID market e.g. netbooks/ Pads or Slates or Tablets– these are less about “Office” and more about

mobility and battery life– many of the smartphone products see this as

a potential market e.g. Apple iPad

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A6 Future of non-Windows OS

• There are many distributions of Linux (over 30 ?) the following are used for smartphones/ MIDs etc

• Maemo (Nokia)/ MobLin (Intel)/MeeGo / Android (Andriod Inc: Google: Open Handset Alliance/ LiMo (LiMo Foundation)/ WebOS (Palm)

• Avoids OS license fees e.g. to Microsoft

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A7 PC maintenance – First Lab

• PCs are very popular (e.g. in professional environments) but:– involve processors which are burdened by

x86 legacy

– use a complex architecture which has to maintain 1980’s ISA legacy

– run a complex OS and applications which are full of potential security holes

• PC System administrators require help !!20

A7 PC maintenance

• There are a range of admin tools which:– Simplify taking a hardware inventory without

opening the box– Allow conflicts in device requirements to be

identified – Facilitate identification of hardware

limitations e.g. lack of physical memory– Assist version control e.g. OS, applications,

device drivers, codecs

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22

MemoryController

Hub

DDR/ DDR2LVDS to display

High Def Audio

DDR/ DDR2

Celeron

DDR2

FlashBIOS

SATA 1.5 Gbps

WiFi interface

USB 2.0

DDR2

I/OController

Hub

Integrated Graphics

GM45 chipset with Celeron

A4 - Budget PC

FSB Interface

LVDS - low voltage differential signalling – laptop display

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Pentium 4

Intel Q57Express Chipset

DDR/ DDR2Intel HD Graphics

High Def Audio

DDR/ DDR2

DDR3 1333 MHz

FlashBIOS + *ME Firmware

6 SATA 3.0 Gbps

8 PCI Express x1USB 2.0 14 ports

DDR3 1333 MHz

A4- Professional PC based on Q57 chipset

PCI Express 2.0 optional

* Trusted Execution Tech

Corei3/ i5 /i7

cpu+gpu

HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort

10/ 100/ 1000 LAN

DMI Interface 2 GBytes/secFDI Interface

* Chipset and processor support vProProfessional PC management

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Pentium 4

X58 IOH

DDR/ DDR2

High Def Audio

DDR/ DDR2

DDR3 1333 MHz

FlashBIOS

6 SATA 3.0 Gbps

6 PCI Express x1

USB 2.0 12 ports

DDR3 1333 MHz

A4 - PC based on i7-9xx and x58 chipset

PCI Express 2.0 x36

CoreI7-9xx

10/ 100/ 1000 LAN

QPI Interface 25 GB/sec

DDR3 1333 MHz

ICH10

DMI Interface 2 GB/sec

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Pentium 4

MemoryController

Hub

DDR/ DDR2LVDS to display

High Def Audio

DDR/ DDR2

Celeron

DDR2

FlashBIOS

SATA 1.5 Gbps

WiFi interface

USB 2.0

DDR2

I/OController

Hub

Integrated Graphics

GM45 chipset with Celeron

Budget PC

SATAeSATA

Smart Storage

Core i3, i5, i7

Q57 for Professional Market

PCIe x16

PCIe x1

04/15/10 27

X58 chipset – Core i7-9xx

Enthusiast's PC