Tutorials/Redstone computers

=Planning= When designing a computer, some general options are available to you as a designer, including the organization of memory called the execution model, and the size of blocks which the computer operates on called it's Word-size.

Harvard
The Harvard architecture physically separates the apparatus for getting the instructions to be executed from that of the normal data access apparatus.

This allows programs written for computers employing a Harvard architecture to perform upto %200 faster for most tasks, note however, memory circuitry is larger for those who select a Harvard architecture.

von Neumann
The von Neumann architecture uses a two-step process to execute an instruction, first memory containing the next instruction is loaded, then the new instruction loaded is allowed to access the memory as it executes, A single memory from which instructions are currently being executed.

Word sizes
Word-size is a primary co-factor of a computers physical size.

Common real-world Word-sizes were once quite fragmented, until the advent of the IBM System/360 which brought with it the now familiar 8-bit Byte and forever standardized machine words-sizes as multiples of 8.

In Minecraft; machines from 1-bit all the way to 32-bit have been successfully constructed.

The most common word-size combinations are:

Data-Word
The amount of data a computer can manipulate at any particular time is a representation of it's Data Word-size.

The Data-Word is also exactly the width of the computers main bus, among other things; it governs the maximum size of numbers which can be processed by the ALU.

Instruction-Word
The amount of data a computer needs to complete one single instruction is a representation of it's Instruction Word-size.

To minimize memory misalignment while retrieving instructions to be executed, most computers use an Instruction-Word size which is a multiple of it's Data-word size;

=Design=