[HN Gopher] Computer Architecture - Michael Flynn (2007)
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       Computer Architecture - Michael Flynn (2007)
        
       Author : rramadass
       Score  : 58 points
       Date   : 2025-01-07 10:48 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
        
       | rramadass wrote:
       | A nice succinct overview of Computer Architecture. Also checkout
       | Michael Flynn's books;
       | 
       | 1) _Computer Architecture: Pipelined and Parallel Processor
       | Design_.
       | 
       | 2) _Computer System Design: System-on-Chip_ coauthored with Wayne
       | Luk.
        
       | recursivedoubts wrote:
       | One thing that I think a lot of introductions are missing is an
       | extremely simple first model of a Von Neumann style computer. I
       | teach the undergrad computer systems class and two models I have
       | found extremely useful are:
       | 
       | - But How Do It Know/Scott CPU
       | (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeYAtkbHvuQ&list=PLYE0XunAbw...)
       | 
       | - The Little Man Computer
       | (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AWN_ntHfPk)
       | 
       | Especially these days, where the computer is more and more
       | abstract from students experience, i think these tangible, visual
       | tools are important for them to get a feel for what's going on at
       | the lowest level of computation (at least in some sense)
        
         | manithree wrote:
         | I thought CARDIAC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARDboard_Illu
         | strative_Aid_to_...) was pretty cool when I was in high school.
         | I still have a couple of them in a box somewhere.
        
           | philomath_mn wrote:
           | Is there a commercially available version of this? Or a very
           | simple mechanism / kit with a similar approach?
        
           | grues-dinner wrote:
           | > High level languages have never been developed for CARDIAC
           | as they would defeat one of the purposes of the device: to
           | introduce concepts of assembly language programming.
           | 
           | That might be the first time that's ever stopped people.
        
         | rramadass wrote:
         | You should also checkout _Inside the Machine: An Illustrated
         | Introduction to Microprocessors and Computer Architecture by
         | Jon Stokes_ for a more real world introduction. -
         | https://archive.org/details/inside-the-machine-an-illustrate...
        
         | trash_cat wrote:
         | - But How Do It Know - Is an excellent book. I came quite far
         | in re-creating the CPU using some logic game simulators. Highly
         | recommend.
        
       | samuelbalogh wrote:
       | A bit random plug - I made a flashcard site and generated
       | flashcards based on this resource (because I want to learn
       | computer architecture, among other tech topics)
       | 
       | https://brightmind.space/app/en/topic/677e9b273de1c962084316...
        
         | nilsherzig wrote:
         | Wasn't the first rule of flash cards not to memorize things
         | which you don't already understand? Generated (LLM?) flashcards
         | might result in you missing out on the whole "understanding the
         | text and breaking it down into flashcards" part of the process
         | - which seems rather important.
        
           | samuelbalogh wrote:
           | Yes, it's meaningless if the topic is mostly unknown to the
           | learner. But that's not the goal of flashcards - the goal is
           | to first read the text, and then reinforce what you learned
           | with bite-sized questions/answers.
           | 
           | Everyone learns differently, I always found flashcards to be
           | incredibly useful and entertaining.
        
         | rramadass wrote:
         | Michael Flynn is a legendary name in Computer Architecture; his
         | taxonomy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn%27s_taxonomy
         | 
         | His computer architecture book (listed here -
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42621236) is still one of
         | the best focusing on principles and design and hence timeless.
         | The language is succinct and very focused on explaining things.
         | I have found it much better than many popular textbooks on
         | computer architecture.
         | 
         | As an example, the submitted article is just 18 pages (pdf) and
         | yet manages to highlight all the major points; a absolutely
         | beautiful overview.
        
         | bluechair wrote:
         | This almost guaranteed to be a waste of time for others,
         | though, because you created them for yourself, perhaps less so
         | for you.
         | 
         | Learning isolated facts via flashcard give you the illusion of
         | learning something. Most likely, when it comes time to apply
         | it, it will not surface.
        
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       (page generated 2025-01-08 23:00 UTC)