Design of a computerJames E. Thornton
Design of a computer
by James E. Thornton · first published 1970
6mentions
3recommended by
5HN commenters
2013–2026first – last mentioned
60% recommend40% neutral
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
>"In 1970, J. E. Thornton wrote a book called Design of a Computer: The Control Data 6600 http://ygdes.com/CDC/DesignOfAComputer_CDC6600.pdf I love this book. The CDC6600 was the first architecture to implement many of paradigms that were later assigned to the RISC…
on “The CDC 6600 Architecture” ↗…concurrency. Loads and stores became sort-of transparent. (Remembering that memory was as fast, sometimes faster than the CPU, so a few instructions saved was worth the occasional unnecessary load.) See "Design of a Computer, The Control Data 6600" by J E Thornton.
on “60-Bit Computing (2022)” ↗I don't understand your critique. A book manages to condense the design of a computer -- from gate-level to operating system -- in a 300 page tutorial and you do not like the fact that it glosses over some details? I doubt any single person has the knowledge to build a modern computer…
on “Building a Modern Computer from First Principles” ↗There are several versions of the Cray 1 Hardware Reference manual online. They're not as descriptive as Design of a Computer, but still informative.
on “The Cray-1 Computer System (1977) [pdf]” ↗A few historically interesting architecture books that are now available for free online are: Thornton, James E, Design of a computer: the Control Data 6600 http://ygdes.com/CDC/DesignOfAComputer_CDC6600.pdf Gordon Bell, Computer Engineering: A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/CGB%20Fi...…
on “Advanced Computer Architecture Reading List” ↗…still required to convert the Verilog (high-level design describing the processor logic) into a netlist (FPGA configuration), and it hasn't been taped out into a chip, either. So, the book covers the design of a computer end-to-middle - that is, without covering how the block / HDL level design becomes logic gates, and without covering how said gates are then manufactured. This is probably fine - the scope has to end…
on “Project Oberon” ↗