Computer architecture

lastmod 2022-09-20created 2018-01-114 edits

In computer engineering, computer architecture is the conceptual design and the fundamental operational structure of a computer system. It is a blueprint that functionally describes the design implementations and requirements (especially speed and interconnection) of the various parts of a computer. It focuses mainly on how the central processing unit (CPU) operates internally and accesses memory addresses.

It can also be defined as the science and art of selecting and interconnecting hardware components to create computers that meet functional, performance, and cost goals.

From a hardware perspective, a computer generally consists of RAM, a hard disk, a central processing unit, a video card, a power supply, a sound card, and so on.

Subcategories

Computer architecture basically has three subcategories

• Instruction set architecture (ISA)
• Microarchitecture
• System design
  • Data paths
  • Memory controllers and hierarchy
  • Data processing other than the CPU, such as direct memory access (DMA)
  • Other issues such as virtualization and multiprocessing

See also

• Computer hardware
• Software architecture
• Abstraction layer
• ASPLOS
• CPU cache
• Scalability
• OperatingSystems:Basic - Operating systems theory curriculum

Favorite site

• Wikipedia (en) Computer architecture
• Brain Stimulation Notes - Chapter 4. Approaches to computer architecture, LOAD & STORE instruction design, Direct mode and Indirect mode ¹

References