The Von Neumann Architecture

The Von Neumann Architecture, originally theorizes by John Von Neumann, has five main components: input, memory, processing unit, control unit, and output.

Input:

The input, as it pertains to the Von Neumann Architecture, is simple. Input is defined as anything the provides input to the computer; for example, information from a keyboard, mouse, flash drive all count as input.

Memory:

I have covered this topic in more depth, here.

Memory is the number of unique locations your computer possesses, that store information. With k-many bits, we can uniquely represent 2^k many memory locations. We refer to each of these locations as a unique memory address. We refer to the collective of these locations as the memory’s address space. We refer to the number of bits that we have to store in each address as the addressability.

This is what a 2² by 3-bit memory looks like.

2² by 3 bit memory

We read from memory by providing the address from which location we intend to read. If we wish to read the contents of a particular memory address, we must first give the address to the Memory’s Address Register (MAR); the information stored in that address will be placed into the Memory’s Data Register (MDR). In order for us to write or store a value in a memory address, we must first…