One might not immediately see the connection between memory caching and multiprocessing, but Schimmel understood that a solid grasp of uniprocessor cache behavior is a prerequisite for understanding the vastly more complex cache consistency problems in SMP systems. As one reviewer noted, "At first glance, the book seems to offer too much detail about hardware for a programmer. But as one proceeds, one sees that understanding the subtleties of hardware-cache-bus-memory interactions is an essential component of 'doing' a kernel for a multiprocessor system".
Writing code that could move between PA-RISC, MIPS, and SPARC. unix systems for modern architectures -1994- pdf
: A refresher on standard Unix kernel architecture and terminology. One might not immediately see the connection between