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Structured Computer Organization (International Edition)
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by Andrew S. Tanenbaum
Sales Rank: 2581781
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$49.97
At Amazon
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Paperback: 669 pages
Publisher: Pearson Education; 4 edition November 4, 1998
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0130204358
ISBN-13: 978-0130204356
Product Dimensions:
9.1 x 7 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
Book Description
This book takes a modern structured, layered approach to understanding computer systems. It's highly accessible - and it's been thoroughly updated to reflect today's most critical new technologies, including Pentium II and UltraSPARC microprocessors, Windows NT and Java Virtual Machines.Tanenbaum and Goodman present a computer as a series of layers, each one built upon the ones below it, and understandable as a separate entity. The book includes detailed coverage at the digital logic and micro-architecture levels, instruction set level, and operating system machine level, and contains a completely rewritten and updated chapter on parallel computer architecture. This new edition includes a wealth of new material about modern I/O devices, a detailed discussion of the Java Virtual Machine (including a microprogrammed implementation of a subset of a JVM), extensive coverage of multiprocessing, and much more.For all computer professionals and engineers who need an overview or introduction to computer architecture.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Info
Presents an introduction to the computer as a hierarchy of levels, each with a well-defined function. Text covers all the major areas of computer function in detail but is still accessible to a broad audience. DLC: Computer programming.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Customer Reviews & Comments
This review is from: Structured Computer Organization (4th Edition) (Hardcover)
This well-written and often humorous (in the good sense) book is targeted for a freshman or sophomore in computer science or computer engineering. Following a few introductory chapters which give both a historical, conceptual, and structural overview of the computer, Tanenbaum partakes upon a semi-detailed introduction to the various "levels" of a computer, beginning with the digital-logic level (the actual hardware) and working up to both the operating-systems and assembly-language levels. With respect to the digital-logic level, I thought he did well in introducing the student to the essential components (e.g. registers, ALU, Flip-Flops) without overburdening the student with design techniques such as Karnaugh maps, finite-state machines, etc.. However, by far the best part of the book seemed to be his explanation of the microarchitectural level, in which the relationship between memory, control, and datapath was fully explained. This chapter seemed to be where the "rubber met the road" in terms of showing the connection between programs and hardware. I would have preferred however if he had not introduced the IJVM language so early in this chapter, and had spent more time demonstrating microprograms. I know for a fact that many of my students seemed very confused about the difference between microinstructions and machine instructions. Moreover, a majority of them found microprogramming with the Mic-1 very difficult if not impossible. More microprogram examples would probably have helped. Finally, where as the later chapters on instruction sets and assembly language seemed very adequate introductory overviews, the operating-systems level seemed overly broad and of not much use. Certainly, a student should read his other book on OS to fully appreciate this all-too-important aspect of the computer. In closing, I should mention that the Mic1 software also accompanies this text, and helps provide the student with a well-rounded education, in that they get some hands-on experience. The software and the well-written text make it an irresistable choice to use a first course in computer organization.
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Structured Computer Organization (International Edition)
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Price: $49.97
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