Differences between Computer Architecture and Computer Organization

Differences Computer Architecture Organization

Computer Architecture is a functional description of the design implementation and requirements of different components of a computer, while Computer Organization provides information about the linking of different operational attributes of the computer system.

Read this tutorial to learn more about "computer architecture" and "computer organization" and how they are different from each other.

What is Computer Architecture?

Computer Architecture is a blueprint for design and implementation of a computer system. It refers to the overall design of a computer system, including the hardware and software components that make up the system and how they interact with each other.

Computer architecture provides the functional details and behavior of a computer system. It involves the design of the instruction set, the microarchitecture, and the memory hierarchy, as well as the design of the hardware and software components that make up the system.

Computer Architecture mainly deals with the functional behavior of a computer system and covers the "What to do?" part. It gives the functional description of requirements, design, and implementation of the different parts of a computer system.

In the designing process of a computer system, the computer architecture is to be defined before the computer organization.

What is Computer Organization?

Computer Organization refers to the way in which the hardware components of a computer system are arranged and interconnected. It implements the provided computer architecture and covers the "How to do?" part.

Computer Organization is to be defined after the decision of the computer architecture. It just provides information that how operational attributes of a computer system are linked together and help in realizing the architectural specification of the computer. It involves the design of the interconnections between the various hardware components, as well as the design of the memory and I/O systems.

Differences between Computer Architecture and Computer Organization

The following table highlights how Computer Architecture is different from Computer Organization −

Key	Computer Architecture	Computer Organization
Purpose	Computer architecture explains what a computer should do.	Computer organization explains how a computer works.
Target	Computer architecture provides functional behavior of computer system.	Computer organization provides structural relationships between parts of computer system.
Design	Computer architecture deals with high level design.	Computer organization deals with low level design.
Role	Computer architecture assists in understanding the functionality of the computer.	Computer organization helps to understand the exact arrangement of component of a computer.
Actors	Actors in Computer architecture are hardware parts.	Actor in computer organization is performance.
Order	Computer architecture is designed first.	Computer organization is started after finalizing computer architecture.
Involves	Computer architecture involves the relationship among logical attributes of the system like instruction sets, data types, addressing modes, etc.	Computer organization involves the relationship among physical parts of the system like circuits, peripherals, etc.

Conclusion

In general, Computer Architecture is concerned with the overall design of a computer system, while Computer Organization is concerned with the way in which the hardware components of the system are arranged and interconnected.

The most important point that you should note here is that Computer Architecture explains what a computer should do, whereas Computer Organization explains how a computer works.