Hardware Architecture: Practical Guide to Computer Systems

Understanding the physical foundation of software is essential for writing efficient code and troubleshooting system-level issues. This text-based course guides you from basic logic gates to modern processor designs, helping you bridge the gap between software and hardware. What you'll learn: - Learn the fundamental components of computer hardware, including the ALU, control units, and registers. - Understand memory hierarchies, cache organization, and how data moves through the system. - Analyze instruction set architectures, contrasting modern x86-64 and RISC-V designs. - Practice reading and tracing assembly language instructions to understand CPU execution. - Explore input/output interfaces, bus architectures, and modern system-on-chip (SoC) layouts. - Discover how hardware virtualization and modern security features protect system memory. You will begin with foundational concepts of digital logic and binary representation, gradually progressing to CPU design, memory management, and modern hardware-software interfaces. This course is designed for beginners in computer science, software development, or systems engineering, with no prior hardware experience required. Start exploring the inner workings of computer hardware today.