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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 HiThere on Saturday October 31 2015, @05:59PM
C is vastly informative and useful AFTER you've learned an assembler. Beforehand, not so much.
Something like the i6502 is a sufficient assembler to learn. MIX might be even better. It introduces all the basic concepts clearly. C is only clear in this way AFTER you already understand what is happening.
I once tried (and failed) to write a FORTH interpreter in i6502 assembler. Afterwards I knew a LOT more about programming than I ever learned with Pascal and C. (I probably could have written the interpreter, but I lost interest in FORTH.)
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