Chapter 4
Computer Architecture
An architect takes components such as walls, doors, and ceilings and arranges them together to form a building. Similarly, the computer architect takes components such as input devices, memories, and CPU registers and arranges them together to form a computer.
Buildings come in all shapes and sizes, and so do computers. This fact raises a problem. If we select one computer to study out of the dozens of popular models that are available, then our knowledge will be somewhat obsolete when that model is inevitably discontinued by its manufacturer. Also, this book would be less valuable to people who use the computers we chose not to study.
But there is another possibility. In the same way that a book on architecture ...
Get Computer Systems, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
