Difference between Stack, Heap, and Queue
Stack, heap, and queue are ways that elements are stored in memory. Stack elements are added to the top of the stack, and removed from the top of the stack. The mnemonic LIFO is used to describe a stack (Last-In-First-Out). With a queue, the first one in is the first one out. The mnemonic FIFO is used to describe a queue. A heap is an area of memory where elements can be stored and removed in any order. More ...
The Fetch, Decode, Execute Cycle
The Fetch, Decode, Execute cycle is paramount to the functioning of a microprocessor. In this article I'll describe the Fetch, Decode, Execute cycle simplified to its bare-bones in a highly simplified fictitious microprocessor. More ...
Multi-Processor Scheduling
Here, we discuss several concerns in multiprocessor scheduling in the context of Multicore, Multithreaded core, NUMA (Non-uniform memory access), and Heterogeneous multiprocessing architectures. More ...
Arduino Microcontroller Development Platform
The benefit of the open source Arduino Microcontroller Development Platform is that the software is free and the hardware is cheap. This makes it one of the cheapest platforms on which to develop prototypes. More ...
Logical Versus Physical Memory Addresses
Computers use logical and physical addresses to access memory locatiuons. The CPU generates logical addresses. At run-time the Memory Management Unit (MMU) maps logical addresses to physical addresses. More ...
Intel's Core 2 Processors
Intel's Core 2 processors, released in July of 2006, are based on the Core microarchitecture, a dual core design using a 65nm manufacturing process to put 291 million transistors on a 143 square mm die. Each core has its own 64KB L1 cache. The two cores share an L2 cache that can be either 2MB or 4MB. More ...
CPU Cache Basics
After the processor accesses a location in memory, there's a high probability that the next location in memory that it will access is in the same area of memory. So to make the computer run faster, a a smaller, faster memory called a cache is placed between main memory and the processor. More ...
Multicore Programming
A recent trend in system design is to place multiple computing cores on a single chip. Each core appears as a separate processor to the operating system. We call these multicore or multiprocessor systems. More ...
The Microcontroller Memory Map
a microcontroller is a set of resources. Each resource is identified by one or more addresses in an address space. The memory map is a graphic representation of how the resources are associated with addresses. More ...
Oscilloscope Required for Serious Digital Electronics Work
The oscilloscope is an instrument that displays digital signals on a line graph with time on the horizontal axis and voltage on the vertical axis. It will be difficult to do digital logic design without the use of an oscilloscope. More ...
Direct Memory Access (DMA)
In early computers, all data transfers required the processor to read and write single words from memory until the entire transfer is complete. With DMA, the DMA controller takes control of the system buses to move data between the device and main memory. More ...
The Computer's Chipset
A computers memory and peripheral ports connect through two highly integrated chips called simply the chipset. The chipset consists of a northbridge chip and a southbridge chip. More ...
