CHAPTER 8 · 2 lessons · 26 exercises
How a computer works
The CPU, memory, and the layers of storage. How the fast parts and the slow parts get along.
This is about what is inside when you open the box, and how the work is divided among those parts.
The structure of a CPU and how its performance is read, the kinds of memory, the storage hierarchy and the cache (why a fast memory and a large store are combined), and how input and output work. This is the chapter where the phrase "the cache is working" gets some substance.
Lessons in this chapter
The CPU and running instructions
- 17The order in which a CPU runs instructionsA computer is made of five units. At the centre of them, how an instruction is fetched, decoded and executed. Plus the formulas for counting speed and the trick of turning it into a production line.Go to the exercises
Layers of storage, and the cache
- 18Fast memory and slow memoryFast memory is small and expensive. Large memory is slow. Stacking storage in layers because you want both, and the arithmetic of measuring the effect with a hit rate.Go to the exercises