Conventional architecture in computer systems is popularly referred as the Von Neumann Architecture. This was one of the earliest and most popular architecture design of the working of a program in a computer system.
The architecture consists of a single computer with an input unit, a central processing unit or processing element, and an output unit.
The memory stores both program and data. The CPU/PE is used to execute the instructions in a sequential manner.
This architecture is no longer used to design highly efficient computer systems today. Parallel computing and superscalar computing have replaced this basic architecture to provide more reliable, cost - effective, more efficient and high performance systems.
The constraints or limitations of such an architecture are mostly in reference to efficiency, speed, performance and cost. This architecture involves sequential execution of instructions, due to which at a given unit of time only one instruction will be executed. Therefore, the speed of the computer system will be limited by the speed at which data and instructions move and the speed at which instructions are processed. The speed of the system also depends on the efficiency of the underlying hardware. For large scale computing applications, it was not efficient to have a single computer with so much performance bottlenecks. It was not only more expensive, but also less reliable and less efficient.
Monday, 12 September 2016
