The Essentials of Computer Organization And Architecture | 
 enlarge | Author: Linda Null
Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Pub
Category: Book
List Price: $123.95
Buy New: $49.95
You Save: $74.00 (60%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 112920
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 700
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 7.6 x 1.9
ISBN: 0763737690
Dewey Decimal Number: 004.22
EAN: 9780763737696
ASIN: 0763737690
Publication Date: February 15, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Covers all the core topics, such as digital logic, data representation, machine-level language, general organization, and much more.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Poor Textbook June 8, 2008
Having used this as a textbook for a distance-learning class, I've found it to be very poorly written. Its greatest fault is that in calculations and procedures, many of the examples provided have incomplete explanations, leaving out crucial steps. This leaves the student staring at the example, trying to figure out how it was done. An in-person instructor can compensate for this by showing examples on the blackboard, but distance-learning students need to find alternate sources to fill in the gaps.
The exercises in the book are also poor. For example, sometimes a factual question is asked, for which the information is not present in the book. Or a problem is given where prerequisite examples or explanations are absent.
As a high-level overview of computer architecture, the book is alright but when it gets into details, it leaves students floundering.
 Assuming the readers know the stuff already. March 31, 2008
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.
Follows its Charter, But... June 21, 2007
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).
 Textbook for Computer Organization class January 3, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
Very Good Book October 25, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
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