Introduction
I believe that success greatly correlates to two things, how you see the world and how much you truly understand it. We can say the same about software engineering; where computer architecture is the very essence of software engineering, if you understand it well enough, software engineering will be a piece of cake.
What is Computer Architecture?
According to Wikipedia:
Computer architecture is a set of rules and methods that describe the functionality, organization, and implementation of computer systems.
Some definitions of architecture define it as describing the capabilities and programming model of a computer but not a particular implementation.
In a nutshell, CA is basically the set of rules that control how hardware and software interact together.
Why Study Computer Architecture?
Computer Architecture can help you more than you think.
For example, most F1 drivers know a lot about their car's engine, to the point they can determine any problem with their engine, even before their engineers can!
They also know about Physics and Aerodynamics, hence this helps them give precise instructions to their mechanics in the Pitstop, like adjusting the nose or the wheels leading them to win more races.
Well, what does all this have to do with CA? It’s the same concept! When you understand and know more about the cornerstone of Software Engineering, you know how to handle problems and achieve what you need, more efficiently.
Why you should learn Computer Architecture:
- You will likely use it for the rest of your life.
- Computer Architecture is one of the most fundamental subjects in Computer Science. As without computers, the field of Computer Science would not exist.
- You need to understand how the instructions and operations actually work and interact together, to make your software better; because whatever you do, no matter what, it is on top of CA.
- Computer Architecture will help you design, develop, and implement applications that are better, faster, cheaper, more efficient, and easier to use because you will be able to make informed decisions instead of guessing estimating and assuming.
Example On How Computer Architecture Can Affect The Way You Code:
Branch Prediction: Let's say you are on a train, your job is to observe the way and you are at a railway junction:
You have to choose a side and you don't know which side to go on; so you either choose the right path or the wrong path, if you do choose the right path you will keep going, if you choose the wrong path however, you will go back and choose the other path. So if you keep choosing the right path you won't have to go back again and if you choose the wrong path you will keep having to go back and forth,
makes sense?
Consider an if-statement: At the processor level, it is a branch instruction:
Now you are a processor and you see a branch, you have no idea which path to go, so you will have to enter.
- If you guess right the execution will never have to stop.
- If you guess wrong, you spend more time going back and restarting the execution.
So how do we make the better choice each time?
We observe. If the process, usually takes left then we guess left. If it takes right most of the time, we guess right. If it alternates, then we alternate our choice as well
This is, more or less, how Branch Prediction works.
Conclusion
Learn Computer Architecture, become a better software engineer.
Special thanks to the reviewer, Rawan Attia.
Oldest comments (40)
Great article!! Keep it up!
Thank you so much.
My semester exams are going on and I'll be writing my Computer Architecture exam in the coming 10 hours. I've hated every moment of preparing for this subject. But after reading this article, I guess I'll give it a try. Thanks man
I am happy to hear that man, and good luck with your exam I hope you do great!
I agree
Hello Voider,
thanks for your article.
I agree with your conclusion that learning computer architecture will help you become a better software engineer :)!
And a question comes to my mind, "How do you train to become a Computer Architect?".
I wish we could not assume questions like this, i see it everywhere, not exact question but such computer questions, definately its a "newbe" asking but if they took time to read ur article, please answer them to ur best.....you dont know how much you do to that person
Thank u
Hello Akin,
I recommend reading computer organization and design by David A. Patterson and John L., that's where I knew about CA during my last semester, but I also recommend learning the basics of assembly so that you can 'link' the concepts you will know about from the book from a closer level of abstraction.
Good Job, Badawy
Keep going 💪
Thanks Abanoub!
I agree that knowing CA is useful. However, the optimization you make on a if statement will only really be useful in high performance context. Adding lot of checks like this in an environment where performance is not the highest requirement will only make your code harder to read.
I agree with you, the range of knowledge you need to know will vary depends on what you need to do.
I will be covering the levels of abstractions for most of the software requirements hopefully.
For those who read this. You've probably heard of the 80/20 rule. You're looking at one. Learning computer architecture is the 20% of the work that'll get you 80% of the result.
Great post and Great advice
That kind of dogmatic behavior is what is wrong with the tech industry and humanity as a whole.
Seriously, try expanding your mindset.
Spot on, yes this is a fine example of some narrow minded elitist thinking, probably with the idea to keep "outsiders" out of "our" industry, and to protect the privileges of the 'incumbents' lol. Yes let's raise the barriers by subjecting all newcomers to some arbitrary and useless algorithm tests, artificial gatekeeping with a nice hidden agenda if you ask me, terrible idea if I ever heard one.
You just described most of humanity. Do you think that taking a hardline point of view will change everyone?
I would love to read some more example translating into real scenarios when you program. The branch prediction one translated into if condition was really interesting.
check out caching, it will help you really well on how to use your data structures better, you can also check how function calls really work, also instruction-level parallelism and out of order instruction scheduling