Abstraction

Abstraction manages complexity by focusing on some attributes

Solving a problem on a computer is a systematic sequence of transformations between levels of abstraction

Levels of Abstraction

Problem Statement

• High level description in a natural language
• Ambiguous, imprecise, and even inaccurate

Algorithms and Data Structures

• Software design, featuring step by step procedures and information organization
• A precise sequence of effective steps and a representation of the information those steps use.

Program

• Statements that are organized into modules (functions, source files, classes, etc.)
• Variables containing data (arrays, structures, objects)
• High level languages - structured in a logical manner (control flow, loops, etc.)

Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)

• Compiling and assembling programs into machine code (instructions that the computer can perform and data types the computer can understand)
• Low level languages - instructions are simple and direct

Micro Architecture

• Detailed processor implementation

Circuits

• Logic gates and low level components

Devices

• Transistors, diodes, etc.

Related: lecture-02, lecture-03, lecture-04, lecture-05

Source

Original retained in wisconsin-legacy.