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from the A|Journey|Through|the|CPU|Pipeline dept.
It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career.
What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a "deep" 31-stage pipeline?
Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside.
As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it?
A primer for those with a less formal background.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Saturday October 31 2015, @05:25AM
This is flamebait, but there's a real case to be made that the most important work most programmers do has nothing to do with the metal, and everything to do with *yuck* soft people skills *wretch*. Identifying what the requirements really mean and making what people need is often(but not ALWAYS) more important than arranging your load time to be 40000 cycles instead of 4000000000
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Saturday October 31 2015, @06:52PM
Plus, leaving behind code that other people can understand.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"