System Architecture ― An Ordinary Engineering Discipline

This undergraduate textbook introduces and explains computer architecture, through the design of a simple MIPS processor, a simple compiler for a C dialect (C0), and a small operating system kernel. All chapters are supported with exercises. A unique feature of the authors' approach is that they treat computer science as a regular engineering discipline.

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang J. Paul received his Ph.D. in 1973 from Saarland University. He did a postdoc in Cornell, and worked as a professor of mathematics in Bielefeld and in a research role with IBM in San Jose. He was appointed a professor in Saarbrucken in 1986, where he is now the Director of the Institute for Computer Architecture and Parallel Computing. He shared the Leibniz Prize in 1987 with Gunter Hotz and Kurt Mehlhorn. He was the scientific director of the Verisoft project. His research interests include hardware design, computer architecture, and the formal verification of processors and microkernels.

Dr. Christoph Baumann received his Ph.D. in 2014 from Saarland University. He worked on the avionics component of the Verisoft project from 2008 to 2010. He is a staff member of the Institute for Computer Architecture and Parallel Computing. His research interests include hardware design and verification, formal specification of modern processors, and formal verification of real-world operating systems.

Petro Lutsyk, M.Sc., is a scientific staff member of the Institute for Computer Architecture and Parallel Computing.

Dr. Sabine Schmaltz is a staff member of the Institute for Computer Architecture and Parallel Computing. Her research interests include operating systems, hypervisors, hardware architectures, compilers, formal verification, formal theories of systems, and pervasive formal verification.