“The architecture of a system can be defined as the functional appearance of the system to the user.”

Blaauw (1972) cited in: Gerritt A Blaauw (1976) Digital system implementation. p. 6

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Gerrit Blaauw 5
Dutch computer scientist 1924–2018

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“In computer design three levels can be distinguished: architecture, implementation and realisation; for the first of them, the following working definition is given: The architecture of a system can be defined as the functional appearance of the system to the user, its phenomenology.”

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Although the term architecture was introduced only ten years ago in computer technology (Buchholz), the concept of architecture is as old as the use of mechanism by man. When a child is taught to look at a clock, it is taught the architecture of the clock. It is told to observe the position of the short and the long hand and to relate these to the hours and the minutes. Once it can distinguish the architecture from the visual appearance, it can tell time as easily from a wrist watch as from the clock on the church tower.
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Source: Computer architecture (1972), p. 154

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