Computer architecture

What Hacker News says

1. skydhashMar 2026
   I'm not a professional embedded engineer, but I do hack around it. Some books I collected:

   - Applied Embedded Electronics: Design Essentials for Robust Systems by J. Twomey. It goes over the whole process making a device and what knowledge would be required for each. Making Embedded Systems, 2nd Edition by E. White is a nice complement.

   - Embedded System Interfacing by M. Wolf describes the signals and protocols behind everything. It's not necessary as a book, but can help understand the datasheets and standards

   - But you want to start with something like Computer Architecture by C. Fox or Write Great Code - Volume 1 - Understanding the Machine, 2nd Edition by R. Hyde. There are better textbooks out there, but those are nice introductions to the binary world.

   The gist is that you don't have a lot of memory and CPU power (If you do, adapting Linux is a more practical option unless it's not suited for another reason). So all the nice abstractions provided by an OS is a no go, so you need to take care of the hardware and those are really finicky,

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2. bakuninsbartJun 2022
   For a blow of the past for younger people I can really recommend Tanenbaum's Computer Architecture. Great book for understanding how a computer works, and the practical example he gives really illuminate well how far we've come!
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3. billfruitMar 2020
   Computer Architecture: Concepts and Evolution by Fred Brooks, Etc is a comprehensive look into the evolution of computer architecture.
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4. charlyslFeb 2020
   It is a great reference, but, IMHO, there are some alternatives that I prefer:

   Programming: I would instead prefer the combo "How To Program", don't be fooled by the name, this course is the business (which will give you a rock solid foundation in systematic program design, TDD, clean coding and recursion, but most importantly, you will understand exactly why you should design your data abstractions first, because they will structure your functions), followed by "Software Construction in Java", which will give you a rock solid and principled software engineering foundation (writing industrial strength tests, specs, ADTs, mutability, grammars, concurrency, the works). Both are free in edx (also check out the latter's ocw version, 6.005). As a bonus, check out Daniel Jackson's approach to software design in ocw's 6.005 from 2008, and how he explains three approaches to software design (state machines, functional and relational/OO). The best and most systematic explanation that I know of how to properly use the much maligned Design Patterns, and a very useful in practice design technique called JSP (although the course is in Java, all the design techniques are universal, this JSP stands for "Jackson Structured Programming").

   Computer Architecture: the MIT combo "Computation Structures" (on edx) and "Computer System Engineering" (on ocw and youtube) will teach you systems design all the way from atoms to the whole internet. Great instructors.

   Algorithms and Data Structures: again from MIT, on OCW (as 6.006, with videos, recitations and assignments in Python), a good balance between theory and practice. The dark horse here is the TA Victor Costan, who won several European level coding competitions as a kid, and will teach you algorithm design in practice. Eric Demain's lectures on Dynamic Programming should become the reference, his "5 steps" approach is amazing.

   Operating Systems: mit's 6.828, from 2011 (has videos for all lectures). You will have to read and understand all 10.000 lines of code of an old Unix (with support from the lectures), and write a large portion of you own OS.

   Databases: I would have a look at CMU's inspiring Andy Pavlo course (on youtube), just watch his intro lecture from 2018 to get a taste. Also have a look MIT's 6.813 from 2014 (some vids), created by Stonebraker, with substantial assignments based on SimpleDB (in Java, if you prefer it over CMU's C++).

   Distributed Systems: MIT's 2015 6.824, by Morris (of the worm). Great text notes, and many lectures on youtube. Assignments in Go, where you will implement your own Raft and a distributed key-value store.

   Some extras:

   Cryptography: Paar's explanations on youtube are crystal clear.

   Data Science: Berkeley's Data8 (2016, may seem basic, but the instructor is amazing and you will learn how to look at data), followed by Data100 (summer 2019, more technical, with Python tools on Jupyter galore). Will give you good intuition if you don't know much stats, and to really worry about your data samples (bias!) (garbage in, garbage out, not sure if this cliche is ever mentioned in these courses, but you will understand exactly how or why, and how to avoid it, or, at the very least, to tune your BS detector).

   etc

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5. lvoudourMar 2018
   I read both Computer Architecture and Computer Organization and Design in college and I really enjoyed them.

   I would recommend COaD to any beginner who wants to learn some basic concepts of computer design (and if working with FPGAs why not build one).

   CA deals with more advanced concepts but doesn't overwhelm you with math and circuit theory (as you noted) so it's a natural progression (from COaD). I think something more advanced and "hard science" should be part of a post-graduate curriculum

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6. cbHXBY1DMar 2018
   I strongly prefer Computer Organization and Design over their Computer Architecture book. I had to read both while at Berkeley. I've considered picking up the new RISC-V edition of the former but I can't justify spending that kind of money when RISC-V is so similar to MIPS. Could be a fun bit of history if RISC-V ever takes over :-)
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