The Building Blocks of Computer Hardware for Software Engineers
The Building Blocks of Computer Hardware for Software Engineers Understanding hardware helps software engineers write better, reliable code. It clarifies why some features run fast and why others stall. This guide covers the main building blocks: CPU, memory, storage, motherboard, power, cooling, and firmware. CPU and memory: The CPU executes instructions and coordinates work. Modern CPUs have multiple cores and caches. The cache levels (L1, L2, L3) are small but very fast, while RAM stores active data. The memory hierarchy matters: fast caches and RAM before slower storage. When developers think about algorithms, memory locality matters. ...