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4
votes
2answers
179 views

How long is a typical modern microprocessor pipeline?

I learnt some about pipelining but those were 4-stage and 5-stage and I think that modern pipelining typical is much longer and more complicated in practice. How long are typical pipelines and how ...
-5
votes
2answers
81 views

Calculate transfer time while accounting for loss of conductivity and speed over circuits [closed]

So based on my limited understand of how computers work I derived the following question. As you transfer things over circuits the circuits heat up. As they heat up they lose conductivity and ...
2
votes
2answers
164 views

Flat addressing vs. segmented addressing

Is flat addressing model generally superior to a segmented one? If so, why? If not, what instances would call for each over the other and why? My understanding of memory models surrounds the ...
2
votes
1answer
145 views

Can we illustrate a CPU pipeline with a UML sequence diagram?

I study multicore pipelining and the diagrams are not UML sequence diagrams for instance Why not remake this diagram like an UML sequence diagram, would not that be more clear so that we can see ...
5
votes
1answer
181 views

Hardware that accelerates pointer dereferencing?

Most modern languages make a heavy use of pointers / references: a typical OOP language uses VMT lookups, a typical functional language builds key data structures out of pointers, etc. Even typical C ...
4
votes
1answer
211 views

Is a CPU a computer?

I read that a computer is made up of the CPU and the memory. I also read that the CPU itself contains a cache which is memory. So if the CPU itself contains the memory, isn't the CPU a computer? ...
2
votes
1answer
166 views

Why did Aiken decided to separate data and instructions in the Harvard Mark I?

When Aiken devised the Mark I, why did he decided to separate data and instructions? It was not mentioned in Wikipedia (or in any other searches I've looked) on how or why Aiken separated data and ...
2
votes
1answer
164 views

Is there genetic relationship between ARM and PDP-11 architectures?

Reading about ARM architecture I found many similarities to PDP-11 architecture which did not exist between ARM and x86. For example, General-purpose registers named Rx compared to AX, BX,... for ...
9
votes
9answers
1k views

How does understanding computer architecture help a programmer? [duplicate]

It is said, by Mike P. Wittie, in the course curriculum of computer architecture that, Students need to understand computer architecture in order to structure a program so that it runs more ...
7
votes
1answer
376 views

How are operating systems compiled and booted the very first time?

I'm interested in how operating systems work. I've been reading some articles about Linux and seem to understand how it all generally comes together, but I feel like there's a chicken and egg dilemma ...
1
vote
2answers
232 views

How Do Computers Process Conditional/Input/ Event Based Code?

I understand that computers are basically a complex system of electrical signatures that can calculate based on logic boards, and some sort of gate mechanism, but how do computers process something ...
7
votes
3answers
540 views

Why isn't DSM for unstructured memory done today?

Edit: Comments suggested, that DSM just faded out by being not used recently. What were the reasons for this, what are DSMs drawbacks? Literature lists many positive aspects like easy to port ...
0
votes
3answers
224 views

Instruction vs data cache usage

Say I've got a cache memory where instruction and data have different cache memories ("Harvard architecture"). Which cache, instruction or data, is used most often? I mean "most often" as in time, not ...
2
votes
3answers
916 views

How many bits' address is required for a computer with n bytes of memory?

How many bits of address is required (for the program counter for example) in a byte-addressed computer with 512 Mbyte RAM? What does the formula look like? How is this connected with the fact that ...
4
votes
5answers
1k views

How can I tell whether my computer is Harvard or von Neumann architecture?

I understand the difference between the two architectures is the separation of instructions from data in the Harvard architecture. But how do I know which type of system I'm on? Is it possible to ...
16
votes
2answers
830 views

Has Little Endian won?

When teaching recently about the Big vs. Little Endian battle, a student asked whether it had been settled, and I realized I didn't know. Looking at the Wikipedia article, it seems that the most ...
2
votes
1answer
209 views

List structures in memory

Could anyone give an overview of how list structures which are composed of a head and a tail which references the rest of the list i.e linked list are represented in memory of the computer? Does the ...
1
vote
1answer
182 views

When to distinguish OS versions in canonical names for target platforms

I would like to organize my company's software releases by platform. I've looked at how Mozilla, Perforce, and Apache organize their releases, and it seems that I should partition by OS and processor ...
5
votes
2answers
570 views

Why do computer architecture textbooks prefer MIPS architecture?

I have read a lot of computer architecture textbooks, and I wonder why most of them (if not all) used MIPS as the architecture to teach. Why MIPS and not Intel or AMD or something else? What makes the ...
2
votes
3answers
303 views

Computers that operate exclusively on boolean algebra

I was wondering if there are any computers that operate exclusively on boolean operations. For example, no add, sub, mult, or div in the instruction set (although these could be emulated with the ...
2
votes
0answers
234 views

Things about Computer Architecture every programmer should know [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Learning computer architecture as a programmer I've been programming in java since last 4 years. Due to this, i havent had much chance to interact with low level stuff. ...
1
vote
1answer
326 views

online computer architecture courses? [closed]

I was interested in taking a computer architecture course at a community college because it's listed as a prereq for a CS masters program I was interested (my undergrad was not in CS). However, it ...
2
votes
3answers
141 views

Making a basic computer that adds number passed by the user [closed]

What are the things that I should be familiar with to make my own computer that can add two numbers, in the same way that happens in a calculator? Can anyone please give me links that teach these ...
1
vote
1answer
1k views

Books on computer architecture that covers these topics [closed]

I am looking for a book on computer architecture that starts from a basic level and goes in depth. I found some books like: Structured computer organization by Andrew S. Tanenbaum but i also found ...
7
votes
4answers
494 views

Low Level Exercises

I'm pretty comfortable with high-level languages and application development. However, although I have learned about low level topics such as the ones listed below, I have never done anything with ...
3
votes
1answer
453 views

Is it possible to take a binary compiled for ARMv7 architecture and convert it to ARMv6?

Is it possible to take a binary compiled for ARMv7 architecture and convert it to ARMv6 ? Are there any tools that can do this?
8
votes
8answers
2k views

Learning computer architecture as a programmer [closed]

I typically run across gurus at SO and other places (instructors, book authors etc.) that would say something along the lines "This will cause alignment issues" or other low level tidbits. I want to ...
-1
votes
0answers
985 views

Best general computer science memory data structures book? [closed]

What are the best books for understanding how languages work 'under the hood'? If there is anon-language-specific book that discusses more of the general principles, that is preferable. If it is ...
11
votes
4answers
345 views

Can increased usage of higher and higher programming languages lead to a deficit of programmers with computer architecture knowledge?

Quote from Wikipedia of the article "High-level programming language": A high-level programming language is a programming language with strong abstraction from the details of the computer. In ...