its program instruction set. Von Neumann enhanced the general definition of the universal computing machine by showing an architecture for such a machine; an architecture that has become a common feature of virtually all computers that we know today.

The von Neumann computer is comprised of a number of discrete elements; a list, if you will, of the simple machines of the computer age. These elements are the central processing unit, the main memory, the bulk extended memory and input/output units. All of these are found in virtually all computers today, from supercomputers to the smallest personal electronic devices.

The cognitive center of the electronic computer is the central processing unit, often referred to through its acronym of CPU. Most computer programmers tend to anthropomorphize the central processing unit as the center of consciousness of the computer; it is the point where instantaneous thought occurs. Procedurally, the central processing unit is the point within a computer where computing actually takes place. It is the place where the language understood by the specific computer is transformed into action. Unlike the human brain, however, the computer central processing unit is essentially only a single state transition machine. A central processing unit interprets a single instruction that views a known state comprised of specific parameters, coupled to a specification of a process to evoke a new state from this known state. This instruction is stored within a mechanism that allows for storage and retrieval over time of these state transition specifications; a mechanism termed computer memory. If this mechanism, that is computer memory, allows for the storage of only one state transition specification then it may not be particularly useful as a general computing facility. In order to effect and manipulate a more complex state machine, a computer must have many such storage locations and the ability to draw from them a series of processing steps to allow transition from all known states to new states. We’ll consider this in more detail in the following section.

The central processing unit provides us with a clear illustration of how the sensori-motor system of an entity ultimately defines the metaphorical basis for that entity’s cognitive functions. The basic form of the world to which the sensori-motor system of a central processing unit reacts is a series of containers, each filled with a string of two-position switches. We tend to call the containers words or bytes, depending on their size, and each is comprised of some number of switches that can be turned on or off. The sensory systems of a central processing unit can detect words and the state of the switches within the various words that are detected. The motor system of a central processing unit can select the specific word to be impacted through motor actions that comprise the subsequent alteration of the state of the switches in the word.

If we create a computational model that assumes an on switch corresponds to a one and an off switch corresponds to a zero, then our container appears as a string of binary bits, a bit being a switch set either to 1 or to 0. A string of 8 bits may be referred to as a byte or an octet. Typically today, a word may be made up of 32 bits. We’re a little ambiguous about the concept of a word relative to computer systems because over the historical age of computers, say a few decades at most, many different computers have used word sizes that range from 8 bits to 64 bits; perhaps even larger for some rather specialized machines. So, perhaps we can say that a central processing unit is completely organized around an ordered collection of words, each comprised of a set of constituent bits.

A central processing unit implements a series of operations based on this concept of a word comprised of bits; the ability of general computation comes with the added provision that there exists many of these words. Moreover, a central processing unit assumes a structure to these many words and makes use of an ability to uniquely identify each word through an address. Thus, the

Book available at Midori Press (regular)
Book available at Midori Press (signed)
Book available at Amazon (regular)