Chapter 2 MIPS Architecture
The rather grandiose word architecture is used in computing to describe the abstract machine you program, rather than the actual implementation of that machine. That’s a useful distinction—and one worth defending from the widespread misuse of the term in marketing hype. The abstract description may be unfamiliar, but the concept isn’t. If you drive a stick-shift car you’ll find the gas pedal on the right and the clutch on the left, regardless of whether the car is front-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive. The architecture (which pedal is where) is deliberately kept the same, although the implementation is different.
Of course, if you’re a rally driver concerned with going very fast along slippery roads, it’s suddenly ...
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