Computer Architecture And System Design: Analysis Of Point Of Sale System And Automated Teller Machine Essay.

Evaluate alternative systems software and machine performance features in order to select appropriate tools and deploy suitable hardware elements for a given set of technical and operational requirements.
Discuss the benefits of a range of system architectures and communications infrastructure elements for a range of applications and user requirements bearing in mind the competing constraints of performance, cost, security and usability.
Identify the merits of a range of specialised architectures in providing performance and other critical requirements for particular application areas or environments, measuring their effectiveness in achieving these goals.

The chosen Contemporary commercial computer systems

In the field of computer engineering the computer architecture refers to the various rules and methods that are set in order to give description of the system functions, organizations, and implementations of the entire computer system, below are the various components and their functions respectively.

1. The processor:

This is the computer system component that is responsible of the execution of the programs through the arithmetic and logical operation of the entered data.

1.  

The memory in a computer system represents a passive component that is used in the storage of the information which waits to be requested by any other part of the system.

1. Input/output (I/O) devices.

It is used in transferring of the information without any alteration between the external entity and the internal devices for example keyboard, mouse and video display.

1. Communication devices/channels.

This is used to tie the entire system together where either using simple link to connect devices or using complex switch to interconnect various components which allows the communication between them at particular times.

The selected computer systems include the point of sale system and the automated teller machine as described here below:

1. Point of sale system (POS):

The point of sale system is a commercial system that is used for selling products and it is made of the combination of hardware and software that are built in order to do centralization of business operations.

The point of sale is made of various components which are connected together to make the whole system the below are the various components of the point of sale system.

1. Point of sale hardware.

This is the hardware that is connected to the other peripheral devices and in which the point of sale system software and operating system is installed.

1. Point of sale computers.

This is the main part of the point of sale system that comprises of the Central processing unit (CPU) that mainly runs the software.

1. The cash drawer.

This is a very essential part section of point of sale system where various items such as the money, credit cards receipt and the papers records are stored.

1. Customer poles display.

This is a section of the point of sale system which is a lighted display that is used to view the total transactions, total of tendered amount and some advertisements messages displayed to the customers.

1. Point of sale monitors.

This is flat panel LCD monitors or CRT monitors that are used by the sellers to display the transactions to the sellers of the products.

1. Point of sale touch screen.

This is a type of screen that provides display to the system users and it allows the easy interactions with the system and helps in minimizing the space used.

1. The keyboards.

This is a primary level interface of the point of sale and they are made of various types which have different functionalities and their selection depends on the sizes, programmable keys requirement and the magnetic stripes reader’s functionalities.

1. The scanners.

This is a device that is hand-held and is used to scan the products details, the details are recorded in the barcodes which are made of series of lines and the scanner used is called barcode scanner.

1. Signature captures device.

This is magnetic strip that is attached to the keyboard and it is used in capturing the customer’s signatures and its use helps in streamlining the business transaction which eventually reduces the cost and errors which can be caused by the use of paper works.

1. Receipts printers.

Mapping components to main building block

This is another device used in the point of sale system to print the receipts and this is used in printing of the records of various customers transactions, this type of printer is manly the serial dot matrix printer since is cheap and easy to install.

1. Automated teller machine system (ATM):

The automated teller machine is another commercial system which is an electronic telecommunication device that allows the financial institution customers to perform various transactions which includes the withdrawing, depositing, transferring funds and receiving the customer’s accounts information at a particular time without involvement of the banks staffs.

The automated teller machine is made of combination of various devices which includes the following:

1. The central processing unit (CPU.
2. The Magnetic/Chip card reader.
3. The PIN Pad.
4. A Secure crypto processor.
5. The Display.
6. The Function key buttons / Touch screen.
7. The record Printer.
8. The Vault.

The von Neumann architecture shows how the computer system is divided into the various blocks and each block has its functionality as discussed below.

1. Input devices: These are the peripheral devices that are used capture the details from the computer system users to the computer memory.
2. Central processing unit: This is the part of the system that is used perform some arithmetic and functions using the entered data or the current information to generate more information.
3. Memory: The memory is a part that stores the information either permanently or temporarily and that information is used or requested by the processor to perform some processes.
4. Output devices: These are the devices that are used to display the information that is processed in the system or the one that is being keyed in the computer memory using the input devices like the keyboard and scanners.

Below shows the mapping of the various selected system devices to the von Neumann architecture system.

1. Point of sale system.

Von Neumann architecture	Mapped System devices	explanation
Input devices	i. Point of sale touch screen ii. The keyboards iii. The scanners iv. Signature captures device	These are the devices that are used by the sellers to key in the information.
Central processing unit	i. Point of sale computers.	This is where various arithmetic and logical transactions are done.
Memory unit	i. The cash drawer ii. Point of sale hardware	These are the devices where the information and data is stored and retrieved.
Output devices	i. Customer poles display ii. Point of sale monitors iii. Receipts printers	These are the devices that are used to display the information to the sellers.

1. Automated teller machine system.

Von Neumann architecture	Mapped System devices	explanation
Input devices	i. The PIN Pad ii. The Function key buttons / Touch screen	These are used by users to key in the required data.
Central processing unit	i. The central processing unit (CPU) ii. A Secure crypto processor	These are the devices that are used to process the data..
Memory unit	i. The Magnetic/Chip card reader ii. The Vault	These are the devices that store the information about the customer.
Output devices	i. The Display ii. The record Printer	These displays the information to the customers

The two selected commercial system are slightly different from each other, this is in terms of their functions, structure, performance, cost and energy consumption as describe in the table below.

System name	Performance	Cost	Energy  consumption
Point of sale system	The point of sale performance is moderately high has improved on the sales speed and record management below are measuring attributes. i. Average Queue length- 10 ii. Average Waiting time – 3 minutes	$550	1,300 watts per day.
Automated teller machine	The automated teller machine performance is high and  has improved on the service delivery to the customer, as attested by attributes below. iii. Average Queue length- 20 iv. Average Waiting time – 5 minutes	$1,200	2,500 watts per day.

1. Point of sale system.

The processor chip of the point of sale system, the processor is made of various sections which include the registers, control units, the clock, the bus and program counters as in the figure below.

1. Automated teller machine system.

The automated teller machine processor chip is made of various components which include control unit and the arithmetic logic unit which do the computations and the arithmetic operations as in the figure below.

1. Point of sale system.

The point of sale has instruction set architecture which is termed as the Complex Instruction Set Computer architecture(CISC) where it make use of less number of lines of assembly codes which performs multiple steps in many clock’s cycles and thus enabling the compilation of higher level language (Wixom, 2016).

1. The automated teller machine system.

The ATM system has a instruction set architecture which is referred to as Reduced Instruction Set Computer architecture (RISC) where basic instructions are executed in an independent manner in completion of a task. This instruction set make use of multiple lines of codes where the operations get executed with equal number of clock cycles as in the CISC instructions but less number of registers are required.

1. Point of sale system.

The above shows the internal structure of the point of sale processor and it is made of various components which includes the following:

1. Control unit: It is used in controlling of the processes.
2. Arithmetic logic unit: It helps in the performing of the arithmetic operations.
3. Registers: It is use to hold data from the processor to the RAM and data from the RAM to the processor temporarily to enable efficient execution.
4. Internal data bus: It is used for the interconnection of the internal components of the computer to the computer motherboards.
5. External data path: It is used for fetching the data from the computer memory to the computer processors.
6. Address line: For specification of the exact data location in the computer memory.
7. Automated teller machine system.

The above shows the internal structure of the automated teller machine processor and it is made of various components just like the point of sale processor which includes the following:

1. Control unit: It is used in controlling of the processes.
2. Arithmetic logic unit: It helps in the performing of the arithmetic operations.
3. Registers: It is use to hold data from the processor to the RAM and data from the RAM to the processor temporarily to enable efficient execution (Singh, 2016).
4. Internal data bus: It is used for the interconnection of the internal components of the computer to the computer motherboards.
5. External data path: It is used for fetching the data from the computer memory to the computer processors.
6. Address line: For specification of the exact data location in the computer memory.

The figure above shows the architectural organization of cache memory in the point of sale computer system, however in point of sale system the cache is located next to the processor since it stores the required information by the processor temporarily in order to improve efficiency in the data processing.

1. Automated teller machine system.

The figure above shows the architectural organization of cache memory in the Automated teller machine computer system however in Automated teller machine system the cache is located next to the processor since it stores the required information by the processor temporarily in order to improve efficiency in the data processing (Laplante, 2013).

1. Point of sale system

Research analysis and comparison of designs of the computer systems

In the point of sale system the system devices are interconnected to each other through the bus and these buses are used for three main functions which act as the:

1. Control lines. This is used to control the processes.
2. Address lines. This is used to carry the addresses of the data memory.
3. Data lines. This is used to carry data from the memory to the CPU for the purpose of processing.

However the point of sale interconnection is achieved through two ways which includes the following:

1. Parallel connection: The input devices are connected with the memory and the central processing unit using the parallel bus that allow two way flow of information simultaneously.
2. Series connection: The memory and the central process unit are connected using the serial bus that allow only one way flow of information and one process to be completed at a given time.
3. Automated teller machine.

In the automated teller machine system, the system devices are interconnected to each other through the bus and these buses are used for three main functions which act as the:

1. Control lines. This is used to control the processes.
2. Address lines. This is used to carry the addresses of the data memory.
3. Data lines. This is used to carry data from the memory to the CPU for the purpose of processing (Karumanchi, 2012).

However the point of sale interconnection is achieved through two ways which includes the following:

1. Parallel connection: The input devices are connected with the memory and the central processing unit using the parallel bus that allow two way flow of information simultaneously.
2. Series connection: The memory and the central process unit are connected using the serial bus that allow only one way flow of information and one process to be completed at a given time.

1. Point of sale system.

The memory management involves the controlling and coordination of the computer memory where various blocks which are memory portions are allocated the running programs to optimize the performance of the entire system.

The point of sale system memory management is done as follows:

1. The program requests a memory block and the allocator assigns the program the block.
2. If the program does not require data in the allocated block then the blocks are made available to be reassigned different program by the programmer or the memory manager.
3. Automated teller machine.

The Automated teller machine system memory management is done in the hardware, operating system and application programs in order to optimize the entire system performance.  

The Automated teller machine system memory management is done as follows:

1. The program requests a memory block and the allocator assigns the program the block.
2. If the program does not require data in the allocated block then the blocks are made available to be reassigned different program by the programmer or the memory manager.

1. Point of sale system

The above system has various modules that act as the interface between the input and output devices and the central processing unit below are various input output modules in our system.

1. Point of sale touch screen module.
2. The keyboards module.
3. The scanners module.
4. Signature captures device module.
5. Customer poles display module.
6. Point of sale monitors module.
7. Receipts printers’ module.
8. Automated teller machine system.

The above system has various modules that act as the interface between the input and output devices and the central processing unit below are various input output modules in our system.

1. The PIN Pad module.
2. The Function key buttons / Touch screen module.
3. The Display module.
4. The record Printer module.

The selected instruction set is the Complex Instruction Set Computer architecture which is used in the point of sale system and it is implemented using the below assembly language codes (Goyal, 2011).

The below is the representation of the assembly language using the Complex Instruction Set Computer architecture used in the point of sale system.

Assembly language	Instructions
ORG OH	; Start (origin) at location 0.
MOV R6, #26H	;load 26H into R6
MOV R8, #35H	;load 35H into R8
MOV B, #0	;load 0 into B
ADD B, R4	;add contents of R4 to B
	;now B=B+R4
ADD B, R8	;add contents of R8 to B
	;now B=B+R8
ADD B, #13H	;add to B value 13H
	;now B=B+13H
HERE:SJMP HERE	;stay in the loops
END	;end of asm source file

The system selected had supported the parallelism processing in both the data level parallelism and task level parallelism.

The data level parallelism had been exploited where different subsets perform operations on the similar data, supports synchronous computations, and also optimizes the load balance in the multiprocessing systems.

The task level parallelism also had been exploited in the applications where different operations are performed on different or same set of data, there is use of asynchronous computation, and the load balance is determined by the hardware availability and scheduling algorithm used.

How Request-level parallelism could be adopted.

Request-Level parallelism (RLP) is an alternative way used in the representation of tasks which is mainly based on requests that tend to execute and run in a parallel manner, in order to adopt this type of parallelism the server has to be installed in the system in order to handle multiple requests at the same time (Gupta, 2015).

Prediction of the future trend of the design of computer systems

The selected system had been reviewed by various users and peers where as a result the had been proposal of advancement of the both system where the point of sale system will be advanced to allow the customers to make payments through the master cards while the automated teller machine should be modified to allow the deposit of money through the system (Award, 2013) 

Reference

Award,E.(2013) Systems Analysis and Design .3^rd edn.Delhi:Galgotia Publications Pvt Ltd.

Gupta,B.(2015) Power System Analysis and Design.1^st edn.New Delhi: S Chand & Company.

Goyal, A. (2011) systems Analysis and Design Paperback .2^nd edn.INDIA:Prentice Hall India Learning Private Limited.

Karumanchi,N.(2012) Peeling Design Patterns: For Beginners and Interviews.5^th edn.New York:CareerMonk Publications.

Laplante,P.(2013) Real-Time Systems Design and Analysis: Tools for the Practitioner.2^nd edn.New Jersey:Wiley.

Singh,B.(2016) Systems Analysis and Design.4^th edn.Delhi:New Age International Private Limited.

Wixom,D.(2016) Systems Analysis and Design.2^nd edn. New Jersey: Wiley publishers.