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

Interrupt processing

Processors generally support some form of interrupt handling for responding to service requests from external devices. Conceptually, interrupt handling is similar to a scenario in which you are busy working on a task and your phone rings. After answering the call and perhaps jotting a note for later action ("buy bread"), you resume the task that was interrupted. We humans employ several similar mechanisms, such as doorbells and alarm clocks, which enable us to interrupt lower priority activities and respond to more immediate needs.

IRQ processing

The 6502 integrated circuit has two input signals that allow external components to notify the processor of a need for attention. The first is the interrupt request input, IRQ. IRQ is an active low (that's what the bar over the IRQ characters means) input that generates a processor interrupt when pulled low. Think of this signal as similar to a telephone ringer notifying the processor that a call is...