Computer Architecture

computer architecture is often used to refer to an area of specialization within the academic discipline of computer science. At other times, the phrase computer architecture may be used to refer to specific machine specification, such as SPARC, Intel X86, PowerPC, or Motorola 0X680. more precise designation for specifying such machines instruction set architecture (ISA). In the 1980’s, when computer architecture programs first began within computer science departments at various universities, heavy emphasis was placed on research related to designing better ISA’s. Nowadays, the industry has converged on few different ISA’s and tends to rebuild them over and over again with faster hardware, so computer architecture has moved to focus more on the ways to speed up computer hardware and system-level software than on designing new ISA’s. The academic discipline of computer architecture thus tends to overlap somewhat with fields called computer engineering, or the like, that usually are located within the academic discipline of electrical engineering. The field known as computer architecture may touch all aspects of how specific computer can be specified, built, and verified (tested).