2: Architecture Overview
- Page ID
- 19868
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This chapter presents a basic, general overview of the x86-64 architecture. For a more detailed explanation, refer to the additional references noted in Chapter 1, Introduction.
- 2.3: Central Processing Unit
- The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is typically referred to as the “brains” of the computer since that is where the actual calculations are performed. The CPU is housed in a single chip, sometimes called a processor, chip, or die.
- 2.4: Main Memory
- Memory can be viewed as a series of bytes, one after another. That is, memory is byte addressable. This means each memory address holds one byte of information. To store a double-word, four bytes are required which use four memory addresses.