Computer System Design

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1. rramadassJul 2026
   What are some good books/resources on overall System-On-Chip Design?

   There is a surprising paucity of material on SoC design which are comprehensive and complete. Application-specific tailored features, Cost, Performance, Area, Power etc. all go into SoC design and yet there does not seem to be a comprehensive resource bringing everything together. Even wikipedia isn't detailed enough - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_on_a_chip

   I know of only two decent books viz. Computer System Design: System-on-Chip by Michael Flynn and Wayne Luk (this is pretty good) and the older ARM System-on-Chip Architecture by Steve Furber.

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2. rramadassJan 2025
   A nice succinct overview of Computer Architecture. Also checkout Michael Flynn's books;

   1) Computer Architecture: Pipelined and Parallel Processor Design.

   2) Computer System Design: System-on-Chip coauthored with Wayne Luk.

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3. qazpotAug 2023
   I would also recommend 1st chapter of "Principles Of Computer System Design: An Introduction - Saltzer & Kaashoek" for a more general discussion on complexity in digital system.
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4. rramadassJun 2020
   Modern Processor Design: Fundamentals of Superscalar Processors by Shen & Lipasti

   Computer System Design: System-on-Chip by Flynn & Luk

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5. whydoyoucareOct 2019
   Most comments cover what I thought about this article (obtuse and too abstract to be practical), so I won't repeat them. However, I did find "The Principles of Computer System Design: An Introduction" by Saltzer to be the best book combining theory and practice.

   Part 2 is online: https://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-6-004-principles-of-comput...

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6. rramadassJan 2019
   "Systems Programming" at the minimum, requires knowledge of Language internals, Runtimes, Compiler Toolchains, OS internals, Drivers, Computer Architecture/Organization, CPU/Multiprocessors and Networking. There are other domains like Security, Parallel/Distributed Processing etc which are cross-functional or orthogonal to the above and can be focused on as needed.

   But be warned, earning potential-wise you may lose out(unless you get lucky) to the latest whiz-bang Web/Mobile technology/framework brouhaha. That is the nature of the market. However i consider that the satisfaction of learning and "knowing" how things work, more than makes up for the small loss in earning potential. This technology is also more fundamental and stable and thus will not go away anytime soon.

   I have found the following papers/books (somewhat different from the most commonly cited) useful in my study;

   Languages: Fluency in C is a must. It is THE "portable assembly" language and is available on everything from 8-bit MCUs to multicore servers. You can also link C modules to everything under the sun thus allowing you to extend almost any other language. C++ is also needed; but judicious usage as a "better C" rather than heavy-duty OOP/Generic/Template-mataprogramming madness.

   - Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective 3rd ed. based on x86-64. You might also want to get the 1st ed. which is based on 32-bit x86. These books cover the HW/SW interface and thus includes almost all the topics under "Systems Programming".

   - The C Companion by Allen Holub.

   - Inside the C++ object model by Stan Lippman.

   Tools/Toolchain: Knowledge of the GCC toolchain is a must.

   - The Definitive guide to GCC by Hagen

   - ELF: A Programmer's perspective; paper by H.J.Liu

   - C++ Under the hood; MSDN article by Jan Gray

   - The Practice of Programming by Kernighan and Pike.

   OS/Kernel/Drivers:

   - UNIX Systems for Modern Architectures: Symmetric Multiprocessing and Caching for Kernel Programmers by Curt Schimmel.

   - Linux Kernel Development 3rd ed. by Robert Love.

   - Essential Linux Device Drivers by Venkateswaran.

   - Embedded Linux Primer 2nd ed. by Hallinan

   - The Unix Programming Environment by Kernighan and Pike

   - Advanced Unix Programming 2nd ed. by Rochkind

   Computer Architecture/Organization

   - Modern Processor Design: Fundamentals of Superscalear Processors by Shen and Lipasti

   - Computer System Design: System-on-Chip by Flynn and Luk

   Parallel/Distributed processing:

   - Foundations of Multithreaded, Parallel, and Distributed Programming by Andrews

   - The Art of Multiprocessor Programming by Herlihy and Shavit.

   Bare-metal Embedded: Where the "rubber meets the road"

   - Embedded Systems Architecture: Explore architectural concepts, pragmatic design patterns, and best practices to produce robust systems by Lacamera

   - Patterns for Time-Triggered Embedded Systems by Pont.

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