Computer System Design

Principles of Computer System Design is the first textbook to take a principles-based approach to the computer system design. It identifies, examines, and illustrates fundamental concepts in computer system design that are common across operating systems, networks, database systems, distributed systems, programming languages, software engineering, security, fault tolerance, and architecture. Through carefully analyzed case studies from each of these disciplines, it demonstrates how to apply these concepts to tackle practical system design problems. To support the focus on design, the text identifies and explains abstractions that have proven successful in practice such as remote procedure call, client/service organization, file systems, data integrity, consistency, and authenticated messages. Most computer systems are built using a handful of such abstractions. The text describes how these abstractions are implemented, demonstrates how they are used in different systems, and prepares the reader to apply them in future designs. The book is recommended for junior and senior undergraduate students in Operating Systems, Distributed Systems, Distributed Operating Systems and/or Computer Systems Design courses; and professional computer systems designers. Features: Concepts of computer system design guided by fundamental principles. Cross-cutting approach that identifies abstractions common to networking, operating systems, transaction systems, distributed systems, architecture, and software engineering. Case studies that make the abstractions real: naming (DNS and the URL); file systems (the UNIX file system); clients and services (NFS); virtualization (virtual machines); scheduling (disk arms); security (TLS). Numerous pseudocode fragments that provide concrete examples of abstract concepts. Extensive support. The authors and MIT OpenCourseWare provide on-line, free of charge, open educational resources, including additional chapters, course syllabi, board layouts and slides, lecture videos, and an archive of lecture schedules, class assignments, and design projects.

The next generation of computer system designers will be less concerned about details of processors and memories, and more concerned about the elements of a system tailored to particular applications. These designers will have a fundamental knowledge of processors and other elements in the system, but the success of their design will depend on the skills in making system-level tradeoffs that optimize the cost, performance and other attributes to meet application requirements. This book provides a new treatment of computer system design, particularly for System-on-Chip (SOC), which addresses the issues mentioned above. It begins with a global introduction, from the high-level view to the lowest common denominator (the chip itself), then moves on to the three main building blocks of an SOC (processor, memory, and interconnect). Next is an overview of what makes SOC unique (its customization ability and the applications that drive it). The final chapter presents future challenges for system design and SOC possibilities.

Interrelating the different viewpoints of the logic designer, the assembly language programmer, and the computer architect, the authors present a thorough examination of computer systems and the latest developments in microprocessors, pipelining, memory hierarchy, networks and the Internet.

Written with computer scientists and engineers in mind, this book brings queueing theory decisively back to computer science.

This textbook for courses in Digital Systems Design introduces students to the fundamental hardware used in modern computers. Coverage includes both the classical approach to digital system design (i.e., pen and paper) in addition to the modern hardware description language (HDL) design approach (computer-based). Using this textbook enables readers to design digital systems using the modern HDL approach, but they have a broad foundation of knowledge of the underlying hardware and theory of their designs. This book is designed to match the way the material is actually taught in the classroom. Topics are presented in a manner which builds foundational knowledge before moving onto advanced topics. The author has designed the presentation with learning Goals and assessment at its core. Each section addresses a specific learning outcome that the student should be able to “do” after its completion. The concept checks and exercise problems provide a rich set of assessment tools to measure student performance on each outcome.

Enhance your hardware/software reliability Enhancement of system reliability has been a major concern of computer users and designers ¦ and this major revision of the 1982 classic meets users' continuing need for practical information on this pressing topic. Included are case studies of reliable systems from manufacturers such as Tandem, Stratus, IBM, and Digital, as well as coverage of special systems such as the Galileo Orbiter fault protection system and AT&T telephone switching processors.

Intelligent readers who want to build their own embedded computer systems-- installed in everything from cell phones to cars to handheld organizers to refrigerators-- will find this book to be the most in-depth, practical, and up-to-date guide on the market. Designing Embedded Hardware carefully steers between the practical and philosophical aspects, so developers can both create their own devices and gadgets and customize and extend off-the-shelf systems. There are hundreds of books to choose from if you need to learn programming, but only a few are available if you want to learn to create hardware. Designing Embedded Hardware provides software and hardware engineers with no prior experience in embedded systems with the necessary conceptual and design building blocks to understand the architectures of embedded systems. Written to provide the depth of coverage and real-world examples developers need, Designing Embedded Hardware also provides a road-map to the pitfalls and traps to avoid in designing embedded systems. Designing Embedded Hardware covers such essential topics as: The principles of developing computer hardware Core hardware designs Assembly language concepts Parallel I/O Analog-digital conversion Timers (internal and external) UART Serial Peripheral Interface Inter-Integrated Circuit Bus Controller Area Network (CAN) Data Converter Interface (DCI) Low-power operation This invaluable and eminently useful book gives you the practical tools and skills to develop, build, and program your own application-specific computers.