ISBN0763737690

I can't say I have read this book cover to cover, but I did examine each chapter and its contents for at least a couple of hours. I am a computer science instructor at a start up university.

First the pros - I will say this book is very well organized in terms of each chapter covering specific aspects about computer science. It gives a good "big picture" view of computer hardware and how it interacts with networking and operating system concepts. If this is what you are looking for, this book is a good one.

Cons - However, I was hoping to find a book that goes beyond digital logic and explaining the architecture within .. bus architectures, how ALU and microprogramming work and so on (i.e., to the level of detail done by the Patterson and Hennessy computer org book - but I don't find their book very organized). This book does have a chapter on this but the material was covered very cursorily. What I found was that this book seems to cover almost half of computer science - down to operating system concepts of memory management and disk access and even data structures and computer networks. I would say that MORE than half of this book is already taught in other subjects that most computer science students generally take. I would see no need (as an instructor) to repeat most of its content to computer science students. However, if I were to target non-computer science students (say .. EE majors looking for an understanding of the hardware-software-network interface within one course), then this would be a good book.

I assign it 3 stars only because it does not suit my purpose as prescribing it as a textbook and what I believe this book should deliver in accordance with its title. However, it is a well written book that many could find very useful.

I used this book for a course in Computer Architecture. Except for one chapter, I read the entire book and I practiced almost all the exercises. As a novice reader, I liked the book very much. The book is very well organized, chapters are laid out in logical sequence and the writing style is very clear. Many illustrations are presented in the book that make it easy to understand concepts. Many examples are presented in special cases that help the student understand complicated stuff. Overall I am very much pleased with this book. The only reason I give it four stars instead of five is because the answers to the exercises listed at the back of the book had errors in them (I confirmed this fact after checking with my instructor) and these are not fixed even in the last edition. Highly recommended to those who are new to this topic.

Depending on the competence of the instructor for this course, this book can be either an extremely helpful supplement or a fairly complex crash course to Computer organization. The first four or five chapters truly hold the bulk of information needed to understand the general concepts behind computer organization. The rest of the book just goes into more detail about most of the concepts explained in the first five chapters.
Using MARIE is extremely easy and gives the reader a good understanding on how a simple assembly language works. The Powerpoint presentations on each chapter are a great supplement to the book. The questions in the back of each chapter are fairly challenging as well. Good textbook overall.

I'm in a quandary about how to rate this book. On one hand, it's well written and organized, and definitely follows its charter. From page ix of the Preface, the authors state:

"...we hope to convey the spirit of design used in the development of modern computing systems and what impact this has on computer science students.... Most organization and architecture textbooks present a similar subset of technical information regarding these basics. We, however, pay particular attention to the level at which the information should be covered, and to presenting that information in the context that has relevance for computer science students."

Essentially, the book covers everything a Computer Science (CS) student would need to know (at a fairly high level) about computer systems, their peripherals, and their interconnections. However (and this is the "other hand"), because of their focus on "relevance for computer science students," this book reads more like an extension to a CS "survey" book than it does to a Computer Architecture book.

Though interesting and useful, most of the material (well over 50%, and maybe up to 75%) duplicates material from other courses in a CS degree. To me, every chapter except 4, 5, and 6 resembles summaries of other courses the CS student will take later (actually, chapters 1, 2 and 3 would be from that real "survey" course). Along with the duplication of material, this means that nothing gets covered in depth. Once things get technical, the authors gloss over the details and move on.

Personally, I think that Patterson & Hennessy's Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface, Third Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Architecture and Design) (The ... Series in Computer Architecture and Design) is a much better book for learning Computer Architecture and Organization. That book is definitely hard slogging for CS-types and has quite a few editing and organization rough spots. But, it covers the area well and without duplication. Still, because THIS book is true to its stated aims and is very well written, I have to give it a Very Good 4 stars out of 5 rating (though I'd really like to reduce that to an OK 3 stars out of 5).

Ok, first of all, this isnt really that bad of a book. However the authoer seems to develop the greatest common mistakes that most authors have. The authors assume that we know the subject supposedly covered in the books from time to time. Example is, the authoer often use the word, ok we need to use this and that in order to do this, so basically authoer came out with magical solutions without asking herself the question "why".
Readers want to know why did you come up with that, not just say "we need this and that therefore this" Mind you, there is no why involved in there, just some magic solutions. This is actually very common mistakes most authors have, they dont put themselves in readers' perspectives. Readers dont know the matterials, they want to learn from you. Wasting so much spaces on doing things without explanations is really bad habit for most authoers.