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

Standard RISC-V configurations

The RV32I and RV64I instruction sets provide a base set of capabilities useful mainly in smaller embedded system designs. Systems intended to support multithreading, multiple privilege levels, and general-purpose operating systems require several of the RISC-V extensions to operate correctly and efficiently.

The minimum RISC-V configuration recommended for establishing an application development target consists of a base RV32I or RV64I instruction set architecture augmented with the I, M, A, F, D, Zicsr, and Zifencei extensions. The abbreviation for this combination of features is G, as in RV32G or RV64G. Many G configurations additionally support the compressed instruction extension, with the names RV32GC and RV64GC.

In embedded applications, a common configuration is RV32IMAC, providing the base instruction set plus multiply/divide functionality, atomic operations, and compressed instruction support. Marketing materials for RISC-V processors frequently...