Computer Architecture & Fetch-Execute Cycle

http://web.eecs.utk.edu/research/cs100modules/module1/index.html
Although computers can have many different forms, there are four functional components that all computers must have:

(1) Input/Output (I/O)

(2) Memory

(3)A Control Unit

(4)An Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

This idea about how computers should be built, called the von Neumann Architecture after mathematician John von Neumann who proposed it in 1945, is still the basis for computers today. Using these four components, a von Neumann computer will execute a series of instructions, called a program, which are stored in the computer's memory. This is called the stored program concept.

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