Computer Architecture

The interface between hardware (microprocessor) and software which allows either to be updated independently. Includes the instruction set, memory model, privileged architecture, etc. Different from implementation of structures, which is often called micro-architecture.

There are many nodes about or pertaining to computer architecture on E2, but no single coherent collection. This is a feeble attempt. Please /msg me for anything I have missed, corrections, criticism, and suggestions.

About Computer Architecture

• Computer Architecture
• comp.arch
• Amdahl's law

Parts of processors/processor terms

• translation look-aside buffer
• Arithmetic Logic Unit
• program counter
• register
• opcode
• ISA
• microcode
• machine language
• microprocessor
• instruction set
• CPU
• microcontroller
• branch prediction
• Branch Target Buffer
• Trace Cache
• Conditional Execution

Schools of thought

• CISC vs RISC
• Harvard Architecture
• Von Neumann architecture

Microarchitecture classifications

• VLIW
• RISC
• CISC
• superscalar
• superpipelined
• pipelining
• control flow
• SISD
• SIMD
• MIMD
• dataflow
• Transport-triggered architecture
• Operation-triggered architecture

Cache

• cache miss
• write-through cache
• Fully-associative cache
• cache
• write-back cache
• Direct-Mapped Cache
• Set-associative cache
• Direct Mapped Cache
• L2 cache
• L1 cache

Memory

• RAM
• ROM
• SRAM
• ROM
• NVRAM
• Random Access Memory
• SDRAM
• DDR SDRAM
• RDRAM
• dram

Memory Management

• page fault
• physical address
• mmu
• virtual memory

Parallelism

• SMP
• out of order execution
• parallel processors
• ccNUMA
• NUMA
• symmetric multiprocessing
• multiprocessor
• parallel processing
• PVM
• parallel computing
• parallel processing
• ILP

Implementations

• System/360
• i860
• VAX
• MIPS
• hep
• Cray T3E-1200E
• ARM
  • ARM1
  • ARM2
  • ARM3
  • ARM6
  • ARM7
  • ARM8
  • ARM9
  • StrongARM
  • XScale
  • EP7312
• MOVE processor
• x86
  • p6 core
  • pentium 4

Misc/Unclassified

• OISC
• locality of reference