How Computers Work
Understanding the fundamental hardware architecture of computers — CPU, memory, I/O devices, and the bus architecture that connects them.
Posts tagged with #operating-systems
Instruction Set Architecture: The Bridge Between Hardware and Software
Explore RISC vs CISC, x86 vs ARM, opcodes, operands, and instruction formats that define how CPUs understand your code.
Interrupts & Polling
Hardware interrupts, IRQ handling, and interrupt bottom halves (tasklets, workqueues) for robust I/O processing.
I/O Scheduling Algorithms
Master FCFS, SSTF, SCAN, C-SCAN, and elevator algorithms for disk arm scheduling in modern operating systems.
Journaling & Crash Recovery
How file systems use write-ahead logging and journal checksums to ensure consistency and enable recovery from system crashes without data loss.
Kernel Architecture
Explore monolithic, microkernel, and hybrid kernel design trade-offs and understand why your operating system's architecture matters for performance, security, and reliability.
Kernel Module Development
A comprehensive guide to writing Linux kernel modules, character drivers, and ioctl interfaces for extending kernel functionality.
Lock-Free Data Structures
Atomic operations, CAS (Compare-And-Swap), and concurrent queue implementations
Logical vs Physical Address Space
Understanding address translation, segmentation, and how the operating system constructs a virtual memory view that differs from the actual physical memory layout.
Memory Allocation: Kernel Allocators, Slab, Buddy System
How the Linux kernel allocates memory internally — from the slab allocator and buddy system to memory zones and the subtle differences between kmalloc and vmalloc.