In computer science and engineering, computer architecture refers to specification of the relationship between different hardware components of a computer system. It may also refer to the practical art of defining the structure and relationship of the subcomponents of a computer. As in the architecture of buildings, computer architecture can comprise many levels of information. The highest level of the definition conveys the concepts implement. Whereas in building architecture this over-view is normally visual, computer architecture is primarily logical, positing a conceptual system that serves a particular purpose. In both instances (building and computer), many levels of detail are required to completely specify a given implementation, and some of these details are often implied as common practice.
For example, at a high level, computer architecture is concerned with how the central processing unit (CPU) acts and how it accesses computer memory. Some currently (2011) fashionable computer architectures include cluster computing and Non-Uniform Memory Access.
From early days, computers have been used to design the next generation. Programs written in the proposed instruction language can be run on a current computer via emulation. At this stage, it is now commonplace for compiler designers to collaborate, suggesting improvements in the ISA. Modern simulators normally measure time in clock cycles, and give power consumption estimates in watts, or, especially for mobile systems, energy consumption in joules.
Read more about Computer Architecture: History, Subcategories, Design Goals
Other articles related to "computer, computer architecture, architectures":
... August (born 1970) is a professor of computer science at Princeton University specializing in compilers and computer architecture ... in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000 under advisor Wen-mei Hwu ... a compiler could generate efficient code for architectures with branch predication, such as Intel's IA-64 ...
... The Columbia department of computer science is one of the biggest, most reputed departments in the world ... The department offers an integrated curriculum consisting of programming, computer architecture, operating systems, and theoretical computer science/mathematics ... language processing, computational complexity, analysis of algorithms, computer communications, combinatorial methods, computer architecture ...
... including computational science, computer systems, geometric and visual computing, information systems, intelligent systems, programming languages, software ... First year students cover mathematical topics, computer architecture, networking, and fundamental concepts of programming ... to real world tools that are useful to computer scientists, including Unix, LaTeX, HTML/CSS, CVS ...
... His oft-cited International Symposium on Computer Architecture paper and subsequent work on instruction fetch mechanisms have influenced industry and spawned much follow-on research ... This was published in the ACM Transactions on Computer Systems ... Conte has also contributed to EPIC architectures ...
... Power consumption is another design criterion that factors in the design of modern computers ... Power efficiency can often be traded for performance or cost benefits ...
Famous quotes containing the words architecture and/or computer:
“Defaced ruins of architecture and statuary, like the wrinkles of decrepitude of a once beautiful woman, only make one regret that one did not see them when they were enchanting.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“The computer takes up where psychoanalysis left off. It takes the ideas of a decentered self and makes it more concrete by modeling mind as a multiprocessing machine.”
—Sherry Turkle (b. 1948)