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Not only will it show you how C/C++/Rust, etc... language statements map to CPU instructions, but it can also show you how CPUs execute those instructions! There are advanced views that show the various pipeline stages, execution ports, etc...
E.g.: https://godbolt.org/#g:!((g:!((g:!((h:codeEditor,i:(filename...
The right-most tab should show you the CPU execution pipeline
He discusses exactly what you're describing (L1/2/3 cache hit rates, their performance implications, how compiler optimizations can fool us into thinking we have a good hit rate, etc).
Also take a look into Intel VTune and Processor Tracing to understand how performance counters like Instructions per Cycle are calculated.
What do you want low programming for? I learned assembly so I could disassemble and understand programs. I learned C so I could use all the libraries that people had made and their frameworks than later because C++, Objective C, C#, java, python and other derivatives. I wanted to manipulate images, speech and video and using high level programming language was so inefficient so I continued using C. I learned FPFGAs a…
My suggestion would be to find something that can be improved on in daily life and then learn the skills necessary to make that improvement, to include the trades more physical in nature, such as woodworking, 3D printing, etc. Then, combine those skills with, say, programming embedded devices, etc. or whatever else is needed to accomplish the task.
This ultimately provides a diverse skill-set, feeds the desire to learn, and provides legitimate improvements to quality of life - both tangible and intangible.
And the hardest things are in peripheral.
Any modern microcontroller it will give you the opportunity to learn a lot of useful things about peripheral devices. You can start with any really good modern 8-bits micro like Microchip's 2nd generation of ATTiny, so you'll have in your hands a lot of very powerful interesting smart peripherals: hardware event system, small programmable logic, different timers, good ADC etc.
The only rational additional consideration here is that your target platform should be popular, well documented and supported by the manufacturer.
Then will be time for some Cortex-M0 device with DMA.
Then you'll decide where to go further :)
Start with this - https://bottomupcs.com/
Then do this - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhy9gU5W1fvUND_5mdpbN...
and finally this https://diveintosystems.org/book/introduction.html
[1] https://www.nand2tetris.org/
* - Lower levels include transistor logic, analog electronics, electromagnetism, chemistry and the equilibrium equation (how transistors work), quantum mechanics (how atoms and chemistry works).
Learn everything there is to learn about the Tillitis TKey. It's the most open-source software and hardware USB security token there is. It is FPGA-based, and contains a tiny RISC-V core.
Full disclosure: I'm involved in the project.