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Modern Computer Architecture and Organization – Second Edition

You're reading from   Modern Computer Architecture and Organization – Second Edition Learn x86, ARM, and RISC-V architectures and the design of smartphones, PCs, and cloud servers

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Product type Paperback
Published in May 2022
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781803234519
Length 666 pages
Edition 2nd Edition
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Author (1):
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Jim Ledin Jim Ledin
Author Profile Icon Jim Ledin
Jim Ledin
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Toc

Table of Contents (21) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Introducing Computer Architecture FREE CHAPTER 2. Digital Logic 3. Processor Elements 4. Computer System Components 5. Hardware-Software Interface 6. Specialized Computing Domains 7. Processor and Memory Architectures 8. Performance-Enhancing Techniques 9. Specialized Processor Extensions 10. Modern Processor Architectures and Instruction Sets 11. The RISC-V Architecture and Instruction Set 12. Processor Virtualization 13. Domain-Specific Computer Architectures 14. Cybersecurity and Confidential Computing Architectures 15. Blockchain and Bitcoin Mining Architectures 16. Self-Driving Vehicle Architectures 17. Quantum Computing and Other Future Directions in Computer Architectures 18. Other Books You May Enjoy
19. Index
Appendix

BIOS

A computer’s BIOS contains code that first executes at system startup. In the early days of personal computers, the BIOS provided a set of programming interfaces that abstracted the details of peripheral interfaces such as keyboards and video displays.

In modern PCs, the BIOS performs system testing and peripheral device configuration during startup. After that process has been completed, the processor (under software control) interacts with peripheral devices directly without further intervention by the BIOS.

Early PCs stored the BIOS code in a read-only memory (ROM) chip on the motherboard. This code was permanently programmed and could not be altered. Modern motherboards generally store the motherboard BIOS in a reprogrammable flash memory device. This allows BIOS updates to be installed to add new features or to fix problems found in earlier firmware versions. The process of updating the BIOS is commonly known as flashing the BIOS.

One downside of BIOS...

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