Computer System
A modern, general-purpose computer system consists of a CPU and a number of device controllers that are connected through a common bus that provide access to shared memory. Each device controllers is in charge of a specific type of device, like disk drivers, audio devices, etc.
Figure 1. A modern general-purpose computer system
Like Figure 16 shows, the general architecture of a personal computer (PC) consists of system components connected to a PC bus [1].
Note: 1.In the IBM/AT and compatible computers, the standard bus configuration is Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus. ISA bus later evolved into Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus. ISA/EISA allows third party vendors to build devices that are compatible to the PC architecture.
2. Motherboard is the large printed circuit board that contains placeholders for the CPU and memory components, and the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) software on a chip, the clock. In order to drive system costs, many other parts of a PC system are often included on the motherboard, for instance, disk/floppy controller, modem, and graphics card.
3.BIOS refers to the basic input/output system software that is loaded on a read-only memory (ROM). A BIOS chip contains device controllers, i.e., a software pieces that interface to specific devices.
1.Open source resources
SpecC, which comes from UCI embedded system institute, is a descripting language and development tools for system design:
2. Web pages
Microsoft web page has a lot of information on computer system design, for instance, http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/platform/pcdesign/desguide/default.asp
So does Intel: www.intel.com : http://developer.intel.com/design/pentiumii/manuals/243192.htm
3.Citations
A excellent paper: <<Hints for Computer System Design>>http://research.microsoft.com/~lampson/33-Hints/WebPage.html