DESIGN GOALS - The precise shape of a computer system is determined by the

constraints and objectives for which it was designed. It involves variables such as:
 Standards
 Cost
 Memory space
 Latency
 Throughput
These are typically traded off in computer architectures.
Other variables are also taken into account:
 Features
 Scale
 Weight
 Reliability
 Expandability
 Power Consumption
COST
Cost are generally kept constant and are dictated by device or commercial criteria.
PERFORMANCE
 Clock speed of a computer is often used to describe its output (MHz or GHz). This is
the number of cycles per second that the CPU’s main clock runs at. A system with a
higher clock rate does not always mean it will work better.
 Speed of a computer. Amount of cache a processor has.
 Processor (The faster a processor runs, the higher its speed and the larger its cache)
SPEED OF A COMPUTER
It can be affected by the following:
 Number of functional units in the system.  Bus speed
 Usable memory  Type and order of instructions in the program being executed
TWO MAIN TYPES OF SPEED OF A COMPUTER
 Latency refers to the interval between the start of a process and its completion
 Throughput refers to the sum of work completed per unit of time.
LATENCY
 Interrupt Latency refers to the system’s guaranteed optimal response time to an
electronic event. (e.g. when the disk drive finishes moving some data)
Note: A wide variety of design decisions have an effect on performance – for example. A
wide variety of design decisions influence performance: for example, pipelining a
processor reduces latency (slower) while increasing throughput.
LOW INTERRUPT LATENCIES
 These low interrupt latencies are needed by computers that control machinery. These
computers work in a real-time environment, and if an operation takes longer than
expected, they will fail. Anti-virus software, for example, is computer-controlled.
Computer-controlled anti-lock brakes, for example, must begin braking almost
immediately after being told to do so.
PERFORMANCE DEPENDING ON THE APPLICATION DOMAIN
Other metrics may be used to assess a computer’s success. A device may be:
 CPU bound (as in numerical calculation)
 I/O bound (as in a webserving application)
 Memory bound (as in a database application) (as in video editing) In servers and
portable devices such as laptops, power consumption has become increasingly
significant.
BENCHMARKING ATTEMPTS
 To account for all of these variables by calculating the time it takes a machine to run
through a series of test programs.
 May reveal strengths, but it may not aid in the selection of a computer.
 Sometimes the devices that are being weighed break on different scales. For
example: - One device may be better at handling science applications than another at
playing common video games.
POWER CONSUMPTION
 Designers have also been known to include special features in their products,
whether in hardware or software, that allow a particular benchmark to run quickly but do
not provide similar benefits for other more general tasks.