[Answer] Why Is the Course Computer Organization and Design Important for Software Engineering Students?

[Answer] Why Is the Course Computer Organization and Design Important for Software Engineering Students?

For a driver, learning how a car works may not provide immediate help, but it can still be very useful. If you understand the structure of a car at a fundamental level, you will have a deeper understanding of shifting gears, taking turns, road conditions, and the state of the vehicle while driving. This may fundamentally improve your driving, or it may not have a direct effect. But one thing is certain: if you want to become an outstanding driver, you must have a solid understanding of how a car is built and how it works.

Learning computer architecture is much the same. Today, high-level programming languages are already highly abstracted and far removed from machine language and assembly language, so studying computer hardware may not directly help with programming. (In the era of assembly language, it was basically impossible to learn programming without understanding hardware.) However, if you can understand the structure of a computer and how it works, then it is just as important for understanding software systems as knowledge of automotive principles is for a driver—perhaps even more important.