From Silicon to Syntax

Exploring how hardware shapes programming languages, from CPU architecture to compilers and concurrency.

Part I: Hardware Foundations

Understand CPU basics, instruction sets (x86, ARM, RISC-V), and the memory hierarchy (registers, cache, RAM), exploring how languages exploit these abstractions.

Learning Objectives

Compare C++ disassembly with Python bytecode using objdump and dis.
Learn CPU info commands like lscpu and wmic.

Test Your Knowledge

Take Quiz

Resources

reading

Computer Organization and Design

by Patterson & Hennessy

View Resource (link)

coding

objdump vs dis

by objdump/dis docs

View Resource (code)

From Silicon to Syntax

Part I: Hardware Foundations

Resources

Part II: C++ – Language Close to Hardware

Part III: Python – Language as Hardware Illusion

Part IV: Compilers and Performance

Part V: Integration and Future

From Silicon to Syntax

Part I: Hardware Foundations

Week 1The Hardware–Software Contract

Resources

Week 2Assembly as Ground Truth

Part II: C++ – Language Close to Hardware

Week 3Pointers, Memory, Stack/Heap

Week 4RAII and Resource Management

Week 5Templates, Inlining, Compiler Magic

Part III: Python – Language as Hardware Illusion

Week 6Python Internals: Bytecode and Interpreter Loop

Week 7Why Python is 'Slow'

Week 8JITs and Accelerators

Part IV: Compilers and Performance

Week 9Lexing, Parsing, and ASTs

Week 10Optimization in Compilers

Week 11Concurrency, Memory Models, GIL

Part V: Integration and Future

Week 12Bridging Python and C++

Week 13Language Evolution

Week 14GPU and Accelerator Awareness

Week 15DSLs and Hardware Trends

Week 16Capstone: Silicon to Syntax Showcase