Understanding the Machine, the first volume in the landmark Write
Great Code series by Randall Hyde, explains the underlying mechanics of
how a computer works.
This, the first volume in Randall Hyde's Write Great Code series,
dives into machine organization without the extra overhead of learning
assembly language programming. Written for high-level language
programmers, Understanding the Machine fills in the low-level details
of machine organization that are often left out of computer science and
engineering courses.
Learn:
How the machine represents numbers, strings, and high-level data
structures, so you'll know the inherent cost of using them.
How to organize your data, so the machine can access it efficiently.
How the CPU operates, so you can write code that works the way the
machine does.
How I/O devices operate, so you can maximize your application's
performance when accessing those devices.
How to best use the memory hierarchy to produce the fastest possible
programs.
Great code is efficient code. But before you can write truly efficient
code, you must understand how computer systems execute programs and how
abstractions in programming languages map to the machine's low-level
hardware. After all, compilers don't write the best machine code;
programmers do. This book gives you the foundation upon which all great
software is built.
NEW IN THIS EDITION, COVERAGE OF:
Programming languages like Swift and Java
Code generation on modern 64-bit CPUs
ARM processors on mobile phones and tablets
Newer peripheral devices
Larger memory systems and large-scale SSDs
