Understanding the Microprocessor

Citywide writes "Ars has a very thorough technical piece up entitled Understanding the Microprocessor. It's pitched lower than many Ars articles (all of which are a bit over my head, to be honest), but that's why it's worth checking out: it explains the fundamentals is a very clear and useful way. And as the author notes, this kind of information is really crucial to get a grip on before Hammer arrives."

Comments

Sure

[gowen]

This kind of information is really crucial to get a grip on before Hammer arrives

Yeah, right. In exactly the same way its necessary to understand the principles of the cathode ray tube and sideband modulation before the new season of Buffy starts.

Re:Sure

[DarkHelmet]

Oh my God? None of this news is really necessary?

You mean I've been sacrificing my social life for nothing? Say it ain't so!

You bastard... You cruel, cruel bastard... Can't you break things to the slashdot community gently?

Nomination

[Apathy costs bills]

Nomination for Best Diagram Ever. I really wish my "Introduction to MicroProcessors" had had something like that; instead we were drowned in the whiteboard handwavings of a man with an accent I could hardly understand. Maybe this guy should spin this off into a book, make a killing selling it to Undergrad CS students lost in space...

Re:Nomination

[greechneb]

Fortunately, my microprocessor teacher didn't have an accent, but nonetheless, the diagrams were on a whiteboard, and highly illegible. A book like this would be nice for students taking such a class. The worst part of my class was the $150 book, and using it only for the ASCII table. Then they decided to change the book the next year so I couldn't sell it back -

On a related note - Anybody wanna buy a used book on architecture, programming, and interfacing with the 8086 and 8088 microprocessors? Rarely used, little wear, only used page 33 (ascii table)

Re:Nomination

[Anonymous Coward]

Anybody wanna buy a used book on architecture, programming, and interfacing with the 8086 and 8088 microprocessors? Rarely used, little wear, only used page 33 (ascii table)

I would, but I don't want to buy a book with a used ASCII table

Re:Nomination

[ccweigle]

On the other hand, I found this one pretty confusing.

Yo yo

[Burgundy Advocate]

And as the author notes, this kind of information is really crucial to get a grip on before Hammer arrives.

Yah, you don't want to be caught without da knowledge when the MC gets back in town to teach these new kids a "lesson".

2 legit 2 quit! Hammer time, yo!! Word!

Re:Yo yo

[M.C. Hampster]

2 legit 2 quit! Hammer time, yo!! Word!

Finally, someone really understands me.

I concur! Not a joke!

[mekkab]

It is nice to have an appreciation for the underlying mechanisms of the things we use.
As Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living.

But as many EE or even ECE people know, most programmers don't give a rats ass about what the hardware is doing. those that do have this understanding ( OS people, real-time people, embedded people, well a lot of people!) have it because they need it.

I'm not arguing that it isn't beneficial to know the difference between SIMD, SISD, MIMD, MISD systems, but if you aren't programming or designing for parallel systems, how will this help you when a new processor comes to market?!

The "Hammer" line is just a fumble for relevance. Guess what? We're reading this on a computer. The relevance is already there!

Re:I concur! Not a joke!

[warpSpeed]

( OS people, real-time people, embedded people, well a lot of people!)

embedded people, are they, like, fetuses?

But seriously (and to stay on topic), I am really excited about hammer too. 64 bit processors for the people! I hope the mobo manufacturs get some nice, commodity products out there so that hammer is a viable chioce for my desktop!

This is news how?

[radiumhahn]

Everybody knows computers work because the ONEs and ZEROs are at war with each other...

Re:This is news how?

[vectra14]

you should never bend computer wires too much. you see, 0's are round, so they get through fine, but 1's tend to get stuck in the bends =)

But i thought

[youngerpants]

that my 'puter was powered by a series of little mice on little wheels.

Suppose I'd better stop putting food for them in the coffee cup holder. Who would have thought that the nice man from IT support was right all along

Ahh!

[Inoshiro]

Words bad, hurt Oog head!

Oog simple Caveman, like Hammer. Oog use 64-bit Hammer bash! Oog buy AMD. Oog love AMD!

In Soviet Russia...

[Phosphor3k]

The microprocessors understand YOU!

This reminds me...

[TeknoHog]

You can compress data by removing all zeros, because they don't contain any information anyway. Besides, a "0" is more bulky than a "1" so you'll save more than half of the space.

what I understand about microprocessors

[rock_climbing_guy]

There are 10 kinds of people on this board: those who understand the language of microprocessors and those who don't. As for myself, I fall into the latter category because the darn thing is /.ed already.