Computer Architecture focuses on the basics of effective design and performance enhancement. Following an introduction that discusses the difference between architecture and implementation and how they relate, the next four chapters cover the architecture of traditional, single-processor systems that are still, after 60 years, the most widely used computing machines. The final two chapters explore approaches to adopt when single-processor systems do not reach desired levels of performance or are not suited to intended applications. Topics include parallel systems, Flynn's taxonomy of architectures, and characteristics of unconventional systems of the past, present, and future.