Now we need a digital circuit to control everything in our computer. So we must have a control unitThe unit that controls and coordinates the opration of other units in the computer. that would perform the following:
Coordinate the operation of the other units in the computer
Translate the program instructions into micro-operations to be performed by the different units. This is called decoding
Provide the control signals for other units to perform the different micro-operations required to execute each instruction.
The ALU and registers make up the computer's data pathThe ALU and the registers of the computer.. The data path and control unit form the Central Processing UnitThe data path combined with the control unit of a computer. or CPUsee Central Processing Unit..
Fig. m010115.1 shows a symbolic diagram of the basic components of a computer.
Fig. m010115.1 A Symbolic view of the main components of a computer