Chapter 0 — The machine from the top

This book assumes no computer-architecture, operating-systems or networking background. This chapter introduces the foundations the later chapters build on: what a CPU is made of and how it talks to memory (Chapter 1), what the operating system does to a running program (Chapter 2), what threads share and what that costs (Chapter 3), how a packet gets from the wire to your code (Chapter 4), the data-structure and Rust words the labs use (Chapter 5), how a market and its data feed work (Chapter 6), and how latency is measured (Chapter 7). Read it before Chapter 1 and skim the sections you already know.

Readings in this chapter

1. Bits, cores and memory
2. Processes and threads
3. Networks and data structures
4. Markets and trading vocabulary
5. Measurement and the toolbox