Computer Architecture & Operating Systems

Completed

Low-level computing fundamentals covering processor execution, memory systems, and how operating systems manage processes and resources.

What I Learned

I gained a stronger understanding of what happens under the hood when software runs — including CPU execution, memory behaviour, and how operating systems manage processes, threads, and files.

Key Concepts

Hardware and software interaction
CPU, memory, and performance fundamentals
Operating system resource management

Key Topics

CPU architecture basics
Instruction execution and pipelining
Memory hierarchy (cache, RAM, storage)
Processes and threads
Scheduling
Virtual memory and file systems

Practical Takeaways

Better ability to reason about performance and system-level behaviour
Stronger foundation for systems, networking, and security topics
Improved understanding of why low-level concepts matter for software design

Tools & Technologies

Linux command line
System monitoring / diagnostic tools
Architecture and OS diagrams / simulators
Basic scripting for experiments

References & Resources

University of York module materials (COM00145M)
Core computer architecture and operating systems texts
Linux documentation and command references

Notes

This module made lower-level computing concepts more practical and helped me connect software behaviour to hardware and OS-level constraints.