Computer Architecture
I’m an Electronics Engineering graduate with a strong passion for technology, problem-solving, and building end-to-end solutions. My background includes hands-on work in circuit design, embedded systems, and full-stack development using React, Node.js, Python, and both SQL and NoSQL databases. I’m especially interested in bridging hardware and software through SDN, IoT, and cloud-native technologies. With experience in deploying scalable applications using containers and cloud platforms, I’m driven by how smart systems, edge computing, and network optimization converge in real-world use cases. Always eager to contribute to innovative solutions in today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape.
A computer architecture consists of 3 main components: the CPU, Memory unit and I/O peripherals and all of these components are connected via a system bus.
There are two types of computer architectures:
Von Neumann Architecture
Non-Von Neumann Architecture or Harvard Architecture
Von Neumann Architecture is the basis of all computer architectures, but since it stores all the data and instructions in the same main memory and since the main memory is interfaced with the CPU via a single system bus and as a result CPU won't be able to simultaneously read the instructions and operate on the data. CPU will do it sequentially, which is a performance bottleneck.
A different architecture is the Harvard architecture, which introduces parallelism; i.e., the memory component is divided into two units: one contains data and the other contains instructions and both memory units are interfaced separately with the CPU, which allows it to read instructions and operate on the data at the same time.
Another variant is the modified Harvard architecture, used in modern computers, which improves performance by adding another memory component to the CPU, famously known as cache.
RAM:
RAM stands for Random Access Memory. It is a volatile memory which stores data for processing while the CPU is powered on. There are two types of RAM:
DRAM
SRAM
DRAM stands for dynamic random access memory. The memory chips on DRAM contain transistors alongside capacitors. The transistor retains the binary bit as long as its associated capacitor is charged, so periodic charging of capacitors is required to regulate the bits in transistors, which makes it much slower than the processing speed of the CPU; hence, most of the time the CPU remains idle.
SRAM comes to save us from this bottleneck. It stands for Static Random Access Memory. It basically hides the memory latency. SRAM is basically cache memory; it contains most frequently accessed data and exchanges it with the CPU for fast processing.
