General

There are two main books recommended:

1. Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach. John L. Hennessy, David A. Patterson (any edition, in principle).
2. Practical Aspects of Embedded System Design using Microcontrollers. 2008 Spinger. 
3. Computer System Architecture, M. Morris Mano.

In principle, any other text book about computer architectures will cover the main topics.

1. Understand the design and architecture of the CPU as well as the functionalities of the different CPU components.
2. Understand the design decisions of creating an ISA.
3. Differentiate between kernel and user modes and understand their properties.
4. Understand the different components of the Operating System as well as differentiate between the different OSs used today.
5. Understand the computer memory hierarchy and the different design decisions and management methods and techniques.
6. Understand how processes and jobs are managed and executed.
7. Understand how computers execute arithmetic operations and how these operations are implemented in hardware.
8. Understand how the processer can execute many operations at the same time using Very Long Instruction Words (VLIWs)

Students are expected to obtain the basic principles and design decisions of computer architecture.