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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

Write Great Code. Vol.1: Understanding the Machine

Chapter 1: What You Need to Know to Write Great Code
Chapter 2: Numeric Representation
Chapter 3: Binary Arithmetic and Bit Operations
Chapter 4: Floating-Point Representation
Chapter 5: Character Representation
Chapter 6: Memory Organization and Access
Chapter 7: Composite Data Types and Memory Objects
Chapter 8: Boolean Logic and Digital Design
Chapter 9: CPU Architecture
Chapter 10: Instruction Set Architecture
Chapter 11: Memory Architecture and Organization
Chapter 12: Input and Output
Chapter 13: Computer Peripheral Buses
Chapter 14: Mass Storage Devices and Filesystems
Chapter 15: Miscellaneous Input and Output Devices

Afterword: Thinking Low-Level, Writing High-Level
Appendix A: ASCII Character Set
Glossary