Computer Science · Theme A: Concepts of computer science

A1.1 — Computer hardware and operation

Computer Science · SL / HL · syllabus-mapped notes

1. CS_A1.1.1

   Main CPU components

   The ALU, control unit, registers and buses, and how they interact.

2. CS_A1.1.2

   The role of a GPU

   Why the GPU's architecture suits parallel, graphics and ML workloads.

3. CS_A1.1.3

   CPU versus GPU

   How their design philosophies differ and how they work together.

4. CS_A1.1.4

   Types of primary memory

   RAM, ROM, cache and registers, and cache hits and misses.

5. CS_A1.1.5

   The fetch, decode, execute cycle

   How the CPU runs one machine instruction using memory, registers and buses.

6. CS_A1.1.6

   Pipelining in multi-core architectures

   Overlapping instruction stages across parallel cores to raise throughput.

7. CS_A1.1.7

   Secondary storage

   Internal and external drives and where each is used.

8. CS_A1.1.8

   Compression

   Lossy versus lossless, run-length encoding and transform coding.