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Use your Raspberry Pi to get smart about computing fundamentals In the 1980s, the tech revolution was kickstarted by a flood of relatively inexpensive, highly programmable computers like the Commodore. Now, a second revolution in computing is beginning with the Raspberry Pi. Learning Computer Architecture with the Raspberry Pi is the premier guide to understanding the components of the most exciting tech product available. Thanks to this book, every Raspberry Pi owner can understand how the computer works and how to access all of its hardware and software capabilities. Now, students, hackers, and casual users alike can discover how computers work with Learning Computer Architecture with the Raspberry Pi. This book explains what each and every hardware component does, how they relate to one another, and how they correspond to the components of other computing systems. You'll also learn how programming works and how the operating system relates to the Raspberry Pi's physical components. * Co-authored by Eben Upton, one of the creators of the Raspberry Pi, this is a companion volume to the Raspberry Pi User Guide * An affordable solution for learning about computer system design considerations and experimenting with low-level programming * Understandable descriptions of the functions of memory storage, Ethernet, cameras, processors, and more * Gain knowledge of computer design and operation in general by exploring the basic structure of the Raspberry Pi The Raspberry Pi was created to bring forth a new generation of computer scientists, developers, and architects who understand the inner workings of the computers that have become essential to our daily lives. Learning Computer Architecture with the Raspberry Pi is your gateway to the world of computer system design.

This chapter is primarily about wired and wireless Ethernet (both of which are used a great deal with the Raspberry Pi) and focuses on the bottom four layers, including the transport layer, network layer, data link layer, and physical layer. One way to think of it is that the transport set is about moving data, whereas the top three layers, called the application set, are about processing data via networked applications. These layers are the application layer, presentation layer, and session layer. Wi‐Fi is analogous to Ethernet with wireless media, in that it too spans the data link and physical layers of the open system interconnection (OSI) model, with several variations of the medium access (MAC) mechanism and physical layers. Most models of the Raspberry Pi have a wired Ethernet port that is standard and will work without any tweaking on Linux distributions like Raspbian.

Historically, the understanding of classical computer systems architectures has focused squarely on the interaction between the central processing unit (CPU) and the memory infrastructure. However, a new breed of system is upon us, in which the graphics processing unit (GPU) plays an integral role and is as important as both these key components. To understand the potential of graphics technology, people must focus on its primary purpose and make sense of it in the context of modern 3D graphics. With the release of OpenGL 1.0 in 1992, Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) gained the support of various companies, including Apple, ATI, Sun Microsystems and, initially, Microsoft. As the demands of graphics APIs have increased, GPU hardware architectures have evolved to provide large numbers of general purpose processors on which to perform vertex and fragment shading in parallel. The chapter also discusses Raspberry Pi's graphics hardware: the VideoCore IV GPU, heterogeneous architectures and Open Computing Language (OpenCL).

When people distil computerised data processing down to its very essence, they require only two things of the computers‐input and output, or I/O. This chapter attempts to demystify this complexity via an overview of I/O and the computer architecture behind it. It begins with a short history of interfaces and their related protocols, and examines various I/O schemes involving universal asynchronous receiver/transmitters (UARTs), Universal Serial Bus (USB), Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI), Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE)/Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA), Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA), I2S, I2C, SPI, GPIO and others. Most of them provide rather elegant solutions to specific I/O needs that are defined and explained. The concept of computer I/O devices, also called computer peripherals, consists of devices that accept data input, output processed data, or perform both in and out functions. The chapter concludes with a Raspberry Pi‐specific section on using general purpose input output (GPIO).

The Raspberry Pi uses a Secure Digital (SD) format flash card for its primary non‐volatile storage, including both software and data. Perhaps the single most important advance in non‐volatile storage in the last 30 years has been the development of reliable, low‐cost flash memory. Flash became cheap enough to use in mass‐storage devices. Flash memory fall into four general categories: flash cards (SD, Multimedia Card (MMC), memory stick, compact flash); USB thumb drives; embedded flash (embedded MMC (eMMC), Universal Flash Storage (UFS)); and flash‐based solid‐state drives (SSDs) that are designed to replace conventional hard drives. Flash devices have broad structural similarities to dynamic random access memory (DRAM). DRAM stores data as charge in microscopic capacitors attached to metal‐oxide‐semiconductor field‐effect transistor (MOSFET) transistors. Flash‐based solid‐state drives are coming into their own, with 2‐TB units now widely available. They're still expensive but if history is any guide, that price will come down quickly in the near future.

This chapter is about the Advanced RISC Machine (ARM) processors, especially the ARM11 microarchitecture used in the original Raspberry Pi. The focus on the ARM11 microprocessor architecture leads to a secondary topic in the chapter: system‐on‐a‐chip (SoC) devices. These devices include not only an ARM CPU but also a graphics processor, a mass‐storage controller for SD card access, a serial port controller and several other subsystems that have often been implemented as separate chips or chip sets outside the CPU. In modern CPUs, separate subsystems execute different groups of machine instructions: arithmetic logic unit (ALU); floating point unit (FPU); and single‐instruction, multiple data (SIMD) unit. A stack is a last‐in‐first‐out (LIFO) data storage mechanism essential to the operation of most modern CPUs, including the Raspberry Pi's ARM11. The key characteristic of stack operation is that data items are removed from the stack in the reverse order of how they were stored.

An advance in computer architecture, the system‐on‐a‐chip (SoC) is a tiny package with a rather large collection of ready‐to‐use features. This chapter introduces the Raspberry Pi line of computer boards, looks at the Raspberry Pi's goals and history, and provides the advantages of this tiny one‐board computer has over much larger computers. The Raspberry Pi, about the size of a credit card, is a single‐board computer that packs very respectable computing power into a small space. The chapter introduces the features, components and layout of the Raspberry Pi board and shows contrasts between the various models but with an emphasis on the Raspberry Pi 2. The GPIO pins perform magic in tying the Raspberry Pi to the real world. The status light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) are to the lower left of the GPIO pins. The Raspberry Pi not only inspires the younger, student generation; it makes older generations better and more computer literate.

In executing instructions, the central processing unit (CPU) reads data from memory, changes it and then writes it back. Data and instructions that are used a lot are pulled in closer, via cache. The designs of CPUs are heavily influenced by the speed limitations of system memory. Magnetic tape was a faster storage medium than paper tape and cards, and it had the advantage of being rewritable. Like both core memory and Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) memory chips are based on two‐dimensional arrays of memory cells. This chapter looks at a very simple memory chip and how it works internally. It talks about combining memory chips into memory systems and explains how DRAM and SRAM work. For desktop and conventional laptop computers, multiple chips are assembled onto small “stick” printed circuit modules. Until the late 1990s these were single in‐line memory modules (SIMMs).

This chapter is an exploration of sound on computers in general and specifically how the architecture of the Raspberry Pi supports music and all sorts of other sound manipulations. It discusses analog versus digital audio, sound over High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), 1‐bit digital analog conversion (DAC), both signal and sound processing, and Inter‐IC Sound (I 2 S, a communications protocol for carrying digital audio signals). The chapter also covers the Raspberry Pi's onboard sound, both the input and output features. Compression of an audio waveform allows better quality audio on transmission media than other degrade reproduction. Recordings of old time AM broadcast and movies from the 1930s and 1940s provide a prime example. Features that enable to modify all or parts of sound files are called effects. The audio editing techniques in the chapter work in most Linux distros on the Raspberry Pi, but authors have used Raspbian for the examples.

This chapter presents a broad picture of the idea of programming, with an eye towards giving a head start on choosing a programming language and an overall approach to the challenge of building one's own software. Many people who use the board as an embedded system develop code on Intel PCs by using a compiler that is hosted on Intel‐based Windows or Linux and targets the ARMv6 ISA, which includes the ARM11 CPU. Three components of the programming process are coding, testing and maintenance. The chapter also presents programming terminology that relates specifically to imperative programming languages, which model computation as a sequence of discrete steps that modify state. Functional programming languages, such as Haskell, model computation in terms of functions, and are beyond the scope of the chapter. The chapter looks at the various stages involved in compiling a simple function, written in C.