Book Image

Modern Computer Architecture and Organization

By : Jim Ledin
Book Image

Modern Computer Architecture and Organization

By: Jim Ledin

Overview of this book

Are 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.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
1
Section 1: Fundamentals of Computer Architecture
8
Section 2: Processor Architectures and Instruction Sets
14
Section 3: Applications of Computer Architecture

Summary

This chapter examined several specialized domains of computing, including real-time systems, digital signal processing, and GPU processing. Having completed this chapter, you should have greater familiarity with the features of modern computers related to real-time operation, the processing of analog signals, and graphics processing in applications including gaming, voice communication, video display, and the supercomputer-like applications of GPUs. These capabilities are important extensions to the core computing tasks performed by the central processor, whether in a cloud server, a desktop computer, or a smartphone.

The next chapter will take a deeper look at modern processor architectures, specifically the von Neumann, Harvard, and modified Harvard variants. The chapter will also cover the use of paged virtual memory (PVM) and the features and functions of a generalized memory management unit.