Computer Architecture
Instruction sets, pipelining, cache and the memory hierarchy
This is the Computer Architecture syllabus taught for AP Exams (Advanced Placement). Each topic opens as a full chapter — theory, worked examples and the traps that paper actually uses.
Topics in Computer Architecture
- Input, Output and DMAHow the CPU talks to devices: polling, interrupts, DMA, and the same LOAD aimed at a device register.
- Cache and the Memory HierarchyWhy caches work, where a block may live, and how to average the cost of a hit and a miss.
- Instruction PipeliningOverlap fetch, decode, execute, memory and write-back; hazards that stall that overlap; speedup versus a non-pipelined machine.
- ISA and CPU TimeThe hardware contract: what an instruction is, how it names operands, and the three levers of CPU time.
Practise Computer Architecture
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