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
