A hardware design language should be (i) sufficiently high level, (ii) conversational, (iii) general purpose, and (iv) structured: - Gerrit Blaauw

The purpose of the Committee was to study and report upon the desirability and characteristics of another computer system based on Stretch technology but having a lower cost and broader market than the 7000 Sigma system. The Committee was instructed to keep an open mind in initially examining various machine possibilities both from the engineering and marketing points of view...

The design of a digital system starts with the specification of the architecture of the system and continues with its implementation and its subsequent realisation... the purpose of architecture is to provide a function. Once that function is established, the purpose of implementation is to give a proper cost-performance and the purpose of realisation is to build and maintain the appropriate logical organisation.

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