Computer Systems: A Deep Dive
How the code you write becomes electric current —
from binary to CPU, from cache to operating system
Prerequisites
Requires systems fundamentals. Familiarity with C/Java programming, basic Linux commands. Complete Volumes 1-2 before reading.
Chapter 1 Data Encoding — The Rune System of Computers Complete
Binary, hexadecimal, ASCII, Unicode, UTF-8 — 0s and 1s are the most fundamental runes of the computer world.
Chapter 2 Integers and Floats — The Secrets of Numbers Complete
Signed/unsigned integers, two's complement, IEEE 754 floating-point standard, precision pitfalls.
Chapter 3 Digital Logic — From Logic Gates to Computers Complete
Logic gates, MUX, adders, ALU, state machines — the physical foundation of computers.
Chapter 4 CPU and ISA — The Core Engine Complete
Instruction set architecture, RISC vs CISC, register files, instruction pipeline basics.
Chapter 5 Cache Hierarchy — Speed Buffers Complete
Cache hierarchy, locality, cache lines, write policies, cache-friendly code optimization.
Chapter 6 Virtual Memory — The Illusion of Memory Complete
Page tables, TLB, paging and segmentation, address translation, memory-mapped files.
Chapter 7 Exceptions and System Calls — The Boundary of User Mode Complete
Interrupts, exceptions, traps, system calls, user-mode and kernel-mode switching.
Chapter 8 Process Context — Who's Running Your Code Complete
Process state machine, context switching, scheduling policies, PCB, fork/exec.
Chapter 9 Threads and Synchronization — Doppelgangers and Collaboration Complete
Thread models, mutex locks, semaphores, condition variables, deadlock prevention.
Chapter 10 CPU Scheduling — Who Gets the CPU First Complete
FCFS/SJF/MLFQ/RR/CFS scheduling algorithms, real-time scheduling.
Chapter 11 Lock Implementation and Dynamic Memory Complete
Spinlock/futex/malloc/free internals, memory allocator design.
Chapter 12 Deadlock Complete
Four conditions of deadlock, prevention/avoidance/detection/recovery, Banker's algorithm.
Chapter 13 File Systems and Crash Recovery Complete
Journaling/LFS/RAID/ACL, crash consistency, journaling strategies.
Chapter 14 Virtualization and Containers Complete
Hypervisors, containers vs VMs, CPU/memory/I/O virtualization.
Chapter 15 CPU Pipeline Complete
5-stage pipeline, hazards, forwarding, branch prediction, out-of-order execution.
Chapter 16 C and the Memory Model Complete
Pointers, stack vs heap, buffer overflow, undefined behavior, memory safety.
Chapter 17 Assembly Basics and Calling Conventions Complete
ABI, registers, calling conventions, stack frames, inline assembly.
Chapter 18 Performance Engineering Complete
Profiling/perf/Amdahl's Law/cache-friendly/performance analysis tools.
This volume has 18 chapters, all complete.