This book tries to answer the question, \How is the processor structured?"
This question leads to a second question: \How does the processor function
in a general-purpose computer?"
The answers to these questions can be quite complex and quite involved,
but the answers to these questions do not need to be all that complex. The
complexity of the answers to these questions should be appropriate for the
audience to which the responses are addressed. If you are addressing a pro-
cessor designer, of course the answers must be very detailed. However, if you
are addressing a layman, the answers would be fairly simple and abstract.
This book is intended to be used in a computer science curriculum. So,
our audience is assumed to be computer science undergraduates, or lower-
level graduate students. As such, the answers we supply to our motivating
questions do not have to be nearly as detailed as the answers we would give
to a potential processor designer, nor should they be as simple as the answers
given to a layman.
The pedagogical question that drives the content of this book is, \What is
the simplest explanation of a processor you can give to a student of computer
science; an explanation that will not overpower the student with information,
during the learning process, and yet is suciently complete so as to serve the
student in their career?" In this book, we believe that we have found the sweet
spot between too much, and too little information.
