Introduction
Rapidly changing field:
- vacuum tube -> transistor -> IC -> VLSI (see section 1.4)
- doubling every 1.5 years: memory capacity processor speed (Due to advances in technology and organization)
Things you’ll be learning:
- how computers work, a basic foundation
- how to analyze their performance (or how not to!)
- issues affecting modern processors (caches, pipelines)
Why learn this stuff?
- you want to call yourself a “computer scientist”
- you want to build software people use (need performance)
- you need to make a purchasing decision or offer “expert” advice