March 2018
Beginner
744 pages
26h 5m
English
In this chapter, we have presented a brief overview of computer organization and computer architecture and shown how they differ. We also have introduced some terminology in the context of a fictitious computer advertisement. Much of this terminology will be expanded on in later chapters.
Historically, computers were simply calculating machines. As computers became more sophisticated, they became general-purpose machines, which necessitated viewing each system as a hierarchy of levels instead of one gigantic machine. Each layer in this hierarchy serves a specific purpose, and all levels help minimize the semantic gap between a high-level programming language or application and the gates and wires that make up the physical hardware. ...