Synopsis

• Basic, very high-level understanding of computer architecture.
• RISC-V processor, registers, program counter, memory, bus, rest of the system
• What is an instruction, how does it look like?
• Different kinds of instructions (arithmetic, load/store, control).
• Discuss kinds of instructions by means of the simple factorial function code.
• Introduce the assembler, relieves us from coding instructions manually, provides labels for addresses, pseudo instructions, has directives. Introduce separate translation with translation units (will be the same in C and Java and many other compiled languages).
• Execution traces. Execute programs on paper to deepen understanding of program execution.

Sections Covered