An Introduction to RISC Hardware / Computer Organization

Computer Organization: An Introduction to RISC Hardware' is written for the electronical and computer engineers and students/candidates, who are expected in the future to work in software and hardware fields of computer engineering.

The text is prepared as a support material in reading the text book of the Computer Architecture Courses. My honest recommendation to the reader is first to read the related Chapters from the other textbooks, before reading a Chapter of this book. This book is not a simplified review of a textbook. It contains the details of the components in a RISC processor down to the level of Algorithmic State Machine charts, which corresponds one-to-one to well defined sequential digital circuits.

This book contains the description and function of the basic components to realize a simplified 32-bit RISC processor.

The first Chapter is a general introduction that states the boundaries of the targeted study.

The second Chapter defines a performance measure that is suitable for the development and design of new processors as well as suitable for deciding on the performance of a computer system.

The third Chapter focuses on the relation of the application level programming languages and the machine level instructions, reminding that RISC concept is a result of the simplification of the instruction set to process the C-language programs most efficiently.

The fourth Chapter describes the functional operation and the physical implementation of the arithmetic-logic-units, and the floating-point-units. These units are described in gate-level detail, and the operation of the multiplication and division units are described down to their register level using the ASM charts.

The fifth and the last Chapter targets the understanding of the design and architecture of a typical RISC processor starting from the basic register-level components, including the structure and design of its control unit for single-clock and also for multi-clock per instruction implementation.

Author: Dr. Mehmet Bodur's graduated from METU-Middle East Technical University, And now is studying a lecturer in several universities.