Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
study these and all other computers with a critical eye and to try to understand why
things are the way they are, as well as how they could have been done differently,
rather than simply accepting them as given.
It should be made clear from the beginning that this is not a book about how to
program the x86, ARM, or AVR architectures. These machines will be used for
illustrative purposes where appropriate, but we make no pretense of being com-
plete. Readers wishing a thorough introduction to one of them should consult the
manufacturer's publications.
Chapter 2 is an introduction to the basic components of a computer—proc-
essors, memories, and input/output equipment. It is intended to provide an
overview of the system architecture and an introduction to subsequent chapters.
Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 each deal with one specific level shown in Fig. 1-2.
Our treatment is bottom-up, because machines have traditionally been designed
that way. The design of level
k
is largely determined by the properties of level
k
1, so it is hard to understand any level unless you already have a good grasp of
the underlying level that motivated it. Also, it is educationally sound to proceed
from the simpler lower levels to the more complex higher levels rather than vice
versa.
Chapter 3 is about the digital logic level, the machine's true hardware. It dis-
cusses what gates are and how they can be combined into useful circuits. Boolean
algebra, a tool for analyzing digital circuits, is also introduced. Computer buses
are explained, especially the popular PCI bus. Numerous examples from industry
are discussed in this chapter, including the three running examples mentioned
above.
Chapter 4 introduces the architecture of the microarchitecture level and its con-
trol. Since the function of this level is to interpret the level 2 instructions in the
layer above it, we will concentrate on this topic and illustrate it by means of ex-
amples. The chapter also contains discussions of the microarchitecture level of
some real machines.
Chapter 5 discusses the ISA level, the one most computer vendors advertise as
the machine language. We will look at our example machines here in detail.
Chapter 6 covers some of the instructions, memory organization, and control
mechanisms present at the operating system machine level. The examples used
here are the Windows operating system (popular on x86 based desktop systems)
and
UNIX
, used on many x86 and ARM based systems.
Chapter 7 is about the assembly language level. It covers both assembly lan-
guage and the assembly process. The subject of linking also comes up here.
Chapter 8 discusses parallel computers, an increasingly important topic now-
adays. Some of these parallel computers have multiple CPUs that share a common
memory. Others have multiple CPUs without common memory. Some are
supercomputers; some are systems on a chip; others are clusters of computers.
Chapter 9 contains an alphabetical list of literature citations. Suggested read-
ings are on the topic's Website. See:
www.prenhall.com/tanenbaum
.
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