[ale] Low level computer flow

[Brian Pitts]

Evan Pitstick wrote:
> I am taking some interesting classes this semester at KSU and I was
> looking for some more reading. Anyone know of any good pages that walk
> through how computers interpret machine code? Or maybe you think I
> should just try to find a good page on writing machine code and that
> would give me the understanding I am looking for? I want to have a
> better idea of how the code is read then put into the stack, etc. My
> professor has been using a cake recipe analogy that is enough to move
> along in class and I am trying not to make him walk through everything
> so that the rest of the class can get onto what the class is about.
> Because I got into computers late in the game my understanding is from
> the top down and I want to get into the nitty-gritty.

Learning an assembly language is a great exercise, but it alone won't 
answer your question.

The notes from one Emory professor's course on the topic are at
http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~cheung/Courses/355/Syllabus/syl.html#CURRENT 
. They start with logic gates, and at the end you know enough to build a 
simple CPU. Sections 8 and 9 on microarchitecture and microprogramming 
deal most directly with what you're asking.

If you're going to get one book, get Tanenbaum's Structured Computer 
Organization. A used older edition should be cheap, and you'll learn a 
ton. If you really want something less technical and more focused on 
CPU's, get  Stokes' Inside the Machine.

-Brian