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

Chapter 7: Processor and Memory Architectures

This chapter takes a deeper look at modern processor architectures, specifically the von Neumann, Harvard, and modified Harvard variants, and the computing domains in which each architecture tends to be applied. The concepts and benefits of paged virtual memory, used extensively in consumer and business computing and in portable smart devices, are also introduced. We will examine the practical details of memory management in the real-world context of Windows NT and later Windows versions. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the features and functions of a memory management unit.

After completing this chapter, you will have learned the key features of modern processor architectures and the use of physical and virtual memory. You will understand the benefits of memory paging and the functions of the memory management unit.

This chapter covers the following topics:

  • The von Neumann, Harvard, and modified Harvard architectures...