A Programmer's View of Computer Architecture: With Assembly Language Examples from the MIPS RISC Architecture / Edition 1

by James Goodman, Karen Miller

Overview

This introductory text offers a contemporary treatment of computer architecture using assembly and machine language with a focus on software. Students learn how computers work through a clear, generic presentation of a computer architecture, a departure from the traditional focus on a specific architecture. A computer's capabilities are introduced within the context of software, reinforcing the software focus of the text. Designed for computer science majors in an assembly language course, this text uses a top-down approach to the material that enables students to begin programming immediately and to understand the assembly language, the interface between hardware and software. The text includes examples from the MIPS RISC (reduced instruction set computer) architecture, and an accompanying software simulator package simulates a MIPS RISC processor (the software does not require a MIPS processor to run).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195131093
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/01/1993
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

both at the University of Wisconsin, Madison

Table of Contents

1. Abstractions and Computers1.1. Levels of Abstraction1.2. The Tower of Computer Abstractions1.3. A Programming Language as an Abstraction1.4. Computer Architecture1.5. Computer Execution Basics2. SAL: A Simple Abstract Language2.1. On Assembly and Compilation2.2. Variable Declaration2.3. Arithmetic Operations2.4. Control Structures2.5. Communication with the User2.6. A SAL Program2.7. Procedures2.8. A Modular SAL Program3. Number Systems3.1. Numbers and Their Representation3.2. Weighted Positional Notation3.3. Transformations Between Radices3.4. Representation of Non-Integer Numbers3.5. Precision and Accuracy4. Data Representation4.1. Numbers versus Their Representation4.2. Representation of Integers4.3. Characters4.4. Floating Point Representation5. Arithmetic and Logical Operations5.1. Boolean Operations5.2. Shift Operations5.3. Addition and Subtraction5.4. Multiplication5.5. Division6. Floating Point Arithmetic6.1. Hardware versus Software Calculations6.2. Addition and Subtraction6.3. Multiplication6.4. Division6.5. Advanced Topics6.6. SAL Instructions7. Data Structures7.l. Memory as an Array7.2. Arrays7.3. Stacks7.4. Queues8. Registers and MAL8.1. Instructions as a Data Type8.2. Specifying Addresses in Instructions8.3. The MAL Architecture8.4. Example MAL Code9. Procedures9.1. MAL Procedure Call and Return Mechanisms9.2. Dynamic Storage Allocation9.3. Activation Records9.4. Parameter Passing9.5. Saving Registers9.6. MIPS RISC Register Usage9.7. A MAL Program that Uses Procedures10. The Assembly Process10.1. What Assemblers Do10.2. True Assembly Language (TAL)10.3. Machine Code Format and Generation10.4. Program Relocation11. Input and Output11.1. Typical I/O Devices11.2. The Processor-I/O Interface12. Interrupts and Exception Handling12.1. The Exception Mechanism12.2. The Role of the Operating System12.3. The MIPS RISC Exception Mechanism12.4. A Sample Exception Handler12.5. Operating System Issues13. Architectural Performance13.1. On Minimal Instruction Sets and Choices13.2. Pipelining13.3. Branching Techniques13.4. Memory Hierarchies14. Alternative Architectures14.1. What's All This About RISC? 14.2. The Single-Chip Constraint14.3. The Motorola 68000 Family14.4. The Intel iAPS 86 Architecture14.5. The Cray-114.6. SPARCAppendix A. SALAppendix B. MALAppendix C. TAL