Software architecture (SA) is emerging as one of the primary research areas in software engineering recently and one of the key technologies to the development of large-scale software-intensive system and software product line system. The history and the major direction of SA are summarized, and the concept of SA is brought up based on analyzing and comparing the several classical definitions about SA. Based on summing up the activities about SA, two categories of study about SA are extracted out, and the advancements of researches on SA are subsequently introduced from seven aspects.Additionally,some disadvantages of study on SA are discussed,and the causes are explained at the same.Finally,it is concluded with some singificantly promising tendency about research on SA.