Show understanding of the basic Von Neumann model for a computer system and the stored program concept

N/A

Show understanding of the purpose and role of registers, including the difference between general purpose and special purpose registers

Special purpose registers including:

• Program Counter (PC)

• Memory Data Register (MDR)

• Memory Address Register (MAR)

• The Accumulator (ACC)

• Index Register (IX)

• Current Instruction Register (CIR)

• Status Register

Show understanding of the purpose and roles of the Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU), Control Unit (CU) and system clock, Immediate Access Store (IAS)

N/A

Show understanding of how data are transferred between various components of the computer system using the address bus, data bus and control bus

N/A

Show understanding of how factors contribute to the performance of the computer system

Including:

• processor type and number of cores

• the bus width

• clock speed

• cache memory

Understand how different ports provide connection to peripheral devices

Including connection to:

• Universal Serial Bus (USB)

• High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)

• Video Graphics Array (VGA)

Describe the stages of the Fetch-Execute (F-E) cycle 

Describe and use 'register transfer' notation to describe the F-E cycle

Show understanding of the purpose of interrupts 

Including:

• possible causes of interrupts

• applications of interrupts

• use of an Interrupt Service handling Routine (ISR)

• when interrupts are detected during the fetch-execute cycle

• how interrupts are handled