Yale N. Patt

Sanjay J. Patel

From bits & gates to C & beyond

Introduction to Computing Systems

Xavier Martorell

Pierfrancesco Foglia

Evelyn Duesterwald

Paolo Faraboschi

Message from the General Co-chairs It is our honor and pleasure as General Co-chairs to welcome you to the p- ceedings of HiPEAC 2010 which was held in Pisa. This was the ?fth HiPEAC conference, following in the strong tradition of the ?rst conference in Barcelona in 2005 and the subsequent conferences in Ghent (2007), Goteborg (2008), and Paphos (2009). HiPEAC2010o?eredarichanddiversesetoftechnicalandnon-technical- tivities. The technical activities included most importantly another strong te- nical program, and in addition, eight workshops and ?ve tutorials, all central to the HiPEAC network roadmap. The workshops explored multi-cores, simu- tion and performance evaluation, compiler and optimizations, design reliability, recon?gurable computing, interconnection networks,operating system and c- puter architecture codesign. The tutorials dealt with statistical methodology to evaluate program speed-ups, design for reliability, how to teach introductory computer architecture and programming, programming FPGA-based accele- tors and adaptability. We were particularly fortunate to have two keynote addresses, one by Bob Iannucci, formerly from Nokia, on how data center thinking can be e?ectively ushered into the embedded system domain, and one by Roger Espasa from Intel on the Larrabee Architecture. The non-technical activities re?ected the academic, historical, and cultural charm of Pisa, a major center of Tuscany, and we hope the participants took advantage of our scheduled guided tour of historical Pisa and the conference banquet in a historic villa.

5th International Conference, HiPEAC 2010, Pisa, Italy, January 25-27, 2010, Proceedings

High Performance Embedded Architectures and Compilers

Introduction to Computing Systems: From bits & gates to C & beyond, now in its second edition, is designed to give students a better understanding of computing early in their college careers in order to give them a stronger foundation for later courses. The book is in two parts: (a) the underlying structure of a computer, and (b) programming in a high level language and programming methodology. To understand the computer, the authors introduce the LC-3 and provide the LC-3 Simulator to give students hands-on access for testing what they learn. To develop their understanding of programming and programming methodology, they use the C programming language. The book takes a "motivated" bottom-up approach, where the students first get exposed to the big picture and then start at the bottom and build their knowledge bottom-up. Within each smaller unit, the same motivated bottom-up approach is followed. Every step of the way, students learn new things, building on what they already know. The authors feel that this approach encourages deeper understanding and downplays the need for memorizing. Students develop a greater breadth of understanding, since they see how the various parts of the computer fit together.

From Bits and Gates to C and Beyond

Yale N. Patt

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