I think this kind of knowledge is pretty important for when you're writing code, even if you work exclusively in the JVM. It helps to understand what goes on under the hood and the fundamental limitations of what your computer can do, so you know where you need to optimize.
http://www.ugrad.cs.ubc.ca/~cs121/2015W2/Labs/Lab9/lab9.pdf http://www.ugrad.cs.ubc.ca/~cs121/2015W2/Labs/Lab9/playcpu.p...
I think this kind of knowledge is pretty important for when you're writing code, even if you work exclusively in the JVM. It helps to understand what goes on under the hood and the fundamental limitations of what your computer can do, so you know where you need to optimize.