Introduction To Computer Architecture And Organization

This hands-on tutorial is a broad examination of how a modern computer works. Classroom tested for over a decade, it gives readers a firm understanding of how computers do what they do, covering essentials like data storage, logic gates and transistors, data types, the CPU, assembly, and machine code. Introduction to Computer Organization gives programmers a practical understanding of what happens in a computer when you execute your code. You may never have to write x86-64 assembly language or design hardware yourself, but knowing how the hardware and software works will give you greater control and confidence over your coding decisions. We start with high level fundamental concepts like memory organization, binary logic, and data types and then explore how they are implemented at the assembly language level. The goal isn’t to make you an assembly programmer, but to help you comprehend what happens behind the scenes between running your program and seeing “Hello World” displayed on the screen. Classroom-tested for over a decade, this book will demystify topics like: How to translate a high-level language code into assembly language How the operating system manages hardware resources with exceptions and interrupts How data is encoded in memory How hardware switches handle decimal data How program code gets transformed into machine code the computer understands How pieces of hardware like the CPU, input/output, and memory interact to make the entire system work Author Robert Plantz takes a practical approach to the material, providing examples and exercises on every page, without sacrificing technical details. Learning how to think like a computer will help you write better programs, in any language, even if you never look at another line of assembly code again.

A no-nonsense, practical guide to current and future processor and computer architectures, enabling you to design computer systems and develop better software applications across a variety of domains Key Features Understand digital circuitry with the help of transistors, logic gates, and sequential logic Examine the architecture and instruction sets of x86, x64, ARM, and RISC-V processors Explore the architecture of modern devices such as the iPhone X and high-performance gaming PCs Book DescriptionAre you a software developer, systems designer, or computer architecture student looking for a methodical introduction to digital device architectures but overwhelmed by their complexity? This book will help you to learn how modern computer systems work, from the lowest level of transistor switching to the macro view of collaborating multiprocessor servers. You'll gain unique insights into the internal behavior of processors that execute the code developed in high-level languages and enable you to design more efficient and scalable software systems. The book will teach you the fundamentals of computer systems including transistors, logic gates, sequential logic, and instruction operations. You will learn details of modern processor architectures and instruction sets including x86, x64, ARM, and RISC-V. You will see how to implement a RISC-V processor in a low-cost FPGA board and how to write a quantum computing program and run it on an actual quantum computer. By the end of this book, you will have a thorough understanding of modern processor and computer architectures and the future directions these architectures are likely to take.What you will learn Get to grips with transistor technology and digital circuit principles Discover the functional elements of computer processors Understand pipelining and superscalar execution Work with floating-point data formats Understand the purpose and operation of the supervisor mode Implement a complete RISC-V processor in a low-cost FPGA Explore the techniques used in virtual machine implementation Write a quantum computing program and run it on a quantum computer Who this book is for This book is for software developers, computer engineering students, system designers, reverse engineers, and anyone looking to understand the architecture and design principles underlying modern computer systems from tiny embedded devices to warehouse-size cloud server farms. A general understanding of computer processors is helpful but not required.

The new RISC-V Edition of Computer Organization and Design features the RISC-V open source instruction set architecture, the first open source architecture designed to be used in modern computing environments such as cloud computing, mobile devices, and other embedded systems. With the post-PC era now upon us, Computer Organization and Design moves forward to explore this generational change with examples, exercises, and material highlighting the emergence of mobile computing and the Cloud. Updated content featuring tablet computers, Cloud infrastructure, and the x86 (cloud computing) and ARM (mobile computing devices) architectures is included. An online companion Web site provides advanced content for further study, appendices, glossary, references, and recommended reading. Features RISC-V, the first such architecture designed to be used in modern computing environments, such as cloud computing, mobile devices, and other embedded systems Includes relevant examples, exercises, and material highlighting the emergence of mobile computing and the cloud

An introduction to the nature of computer architecture and organization. Presents interesting problems with elegant solutions, with emphasis on the abstract elements of the problems common to all computer design. Addresses the several schools of thought on what constitutes a ``good'' computer architecture, focusing on the current RISC versus non-RISC approaches. Also discusses the downward drift of design sophistication to smaller machines, such as pipelines, caches, and overlapped I/O. Includes many examples of specific machines and the design philosophy behind them.

In its fourth edition, this book focuses on real-world examples and practical applications and encourages students to develop a "big-picture" understanding of how essential organization and architecture concepts are applied in the computing world. In addition to direct correlation with the ACM/IEEE CS2013 guidelines for computer organization and architecture, the text exposes readers to the inner workings of a modern digital computer through an integrated presentation of fundamental concepts and principles. It includes the most up-to-the-minute data and resources available and reflects current technologies, including tablets and cloud computing. All-new exercises, expanded discussions, and feature boxes in every chapter implement even more real-world applications and current data, and many chapters include all-new examples. --

This is the first book in the two-volume set offering comprehensive coverage of the field of computer organization and architecture. This book provides complete coverage of the subjects pertaining to introductory courses in computer organization and architecture, including: * Instruction set architecture and design * Assembly language programming * Computer arithmetic * Processing unit design * Memory system design * Input-output design and organization * Pipelining design techniques * Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISCs) The authors, who share over 15 years of undergraduate and graduate level instruction in computer architecture, provide real world applications, examples of machines, case studies and practical experiences in each chapter.

The purpose of this text is to introduce the student to the most primitive actions of a computer and then show how the primitive actions of a computer and then show how the primitive actions can be put together to construct most of the complex actions that computers regularly perform. This text takes the student through an introductory treatment of Turing machines, into machine and assembly languages, number representation, and elementary programming. Data structures and input/output programs are the major concerns of the central portion of the text, and the concluding chapter develops techniques for analysis of programs through examples of algorithms for searching and sorting.