Une histoire qui se veut aussi un cours d'initiation, chaque phase du développement de l'informatique étant mise à profit pour expliquer l'architecture des ordinateurs et leurs langages. L'auteur retrace la période qui s'est étendue jusqu'à 1963. [SDM].

Cet ouvrage présente les principes généraux intervenant dans la conception des ordinateurs. Il permet de mieux comprendre leur fonctionnement, étape nécessaire à une meilleure utilisation des ressources. L’accent est mis sur les briques composant une machine, leurs fonctions et leurs interactions. Les liens entre ressources logicielles et matérielles sont présentés chaque fois que nécessaire. La constitution d’un processeur, son fonctionnement et les mécanismes qui lui permettent de communiquer avec l’« extérieur » sont exposés. La notion de hiérarchie de mémoire est abordée pour ensuite présenter les architectures des mémoires caches et la gestion en mémoire virtuelle. Enfin, les problèmes liés à l’introduction du parallélisme dans les architectures sont envisagés : solutions matérielles et logicielles dans les architectures pipelines, problèmes de cohérence de mémoire et mise en œuvre des architectures superscalaires. Les auteurs Gérard Blanchet et Bertrand Dupouy sont tous deux enseignants-chercheurs au sein de Telecom Paristech. Membres, respectivement, des départements « Traitement du signal et des images » et « Informatique et réseaux », ils sont tous deux auteurs de plusieurs ouvrages et articles de synthèse traitant de l’architecture des ordinateurs ou des architectures spécialisées.

This book lays out the concepts necessary to understand how a computer works. For reasons of clarity, the authors have deliberately chosen examples that apply to machines from all eras, without having to water down the contents of the book. This choice helps to show how techniques, concepts and performances have evolved since the first computers. The book is divided into five parts. The first four, which are of increasing difficulty, are the core of the book: “Elements of a Basic Architecture”, “Programming Model and Operation”, “Memory Hierarchy”, “Parallelism and Performance Enhancement”. The final part provides hints and solutions to the exercises in the book as well as appendices. The reader may approach each part independently based on their prior knowledge and goals.

Until recently, the philosophy and history of science proceeded in a separate way from the philosophy and history of technology, and indeed with respect to both science and technology, philosophical and historical inquiries were also following their separate ways. Now we see in the past quarter-century how the philosophy of science has been profoundly in fluenced by historical studies of the sciences, and no longer concerned so single-mindedly with the analysis of theory and explanation, with the re lation between hypotheses and experimental observation. Now also we see the traditional historical studies of technology supplemented by phi losophical questions, and no longer so plainly focussed upon contexts of application, on invention and practical engineering, and on the mutually stimulating relations between technology and society. Further, alas, the neat division of intellectual labor, those clearly drawn distinctions be tween science and technology, between the theoretical and the applied, between discovery and justification, between internalist and externalist approaches . . . all, all have become muddled! Partly, this is due to internal revolutions within the philosophy and his tory of science (the first result being recognition of their mutual rele vance). Partly, however, this state of 'muddle' is due to external factors: science, at the least in the last half-century, has become so intimately connected with technology, and technological developments have cre ated so many new fields of scientific (and philosophical) inquiry that any critical reflection on scientific and technological endeavors must hence forth take their interaction into account.

This book recounts the adventures of Louis Pouzin who invented one of the core elements for transmitting data over today’s Internet, the datagram. He also created one of the most widely used computer programming languages, the Shell; and is currently, at age 88, a leader in the development of a new Internet, RINA. Louis Pouzin is not well known in his own country, France, but is acclaimed by his peers internationally. He was ignored in France for years although he is one of the very few French scientists who has met Queen Elizabeth II three times. This lack of appreciation on the part of the French public is also due to the fact that, despite the motto “publish or perish” current in scientific circles, he has an impressive list of scientific publications but only one book in English, to present his incredible achievement carried out with an exceptional team: the Cyclades project. This book is the story of a life and a team. It is the journey of a visionary intellectual who has always been one step ahead and has fully adapted to the 21st century though born into a very modest family in a small village in central France at the beginning of the 20th century... What makes Louis Pouzin so special is that he is a leader and decision-maker who knows how to attract the right people to get projects done. He never admits defeat, even when short-sighted politicians absurdly order him to scrap his breakthroughs. In its making, this book which is written for everyone interested in the true history of the Web, has strictly respected the basic rules of any journalistic investigation: interviews with those who made history, cross-referencing of sources, and documentary research.