3. Introduction

The term ``computer architecture'' refers to the subject area that deals with the design and engineering of the various components of a computer. The scope of ``computer architecture'' varies. Some universities include core level operating system concepts as a part of computer architecture, others only include hardware (electronics) aspects.

For the purpose of this class, ``computer architecture'' includes all the components up to the interface to the operating system. In other words, we shall not discuss the internals of an operating system, but merely how to interface to it. On the other end, we will discuss, very lightly, how major hardware components of a computer interact to perform operations.

The main focus of this class is on assembly programming. Assembly language is the lowest level symbolic language that permits the programmer fully control exactly how a computer performs operations in software. In other words, with assembly programming, a programmer can choose not to leave any degree of freedom to the development tool.