Customer Reviews

Computer Systems Organization and Architecture

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I was forced to buy this book for my Architecture class. I really regret wasting my money on it. In short, the book [stinks]. It assumes too many things. It does not do a very good job explaining some important pieces of information. For the most part, the student will spend the whole time trying to make sense out of what the author is saying. It is one of these "should've..could've" books!
If you are looking for an architecture book, I wouldn't recommend this one.

I used this book for an undergrad Architecture course. I had a great teacher, and we only looked at certain sections in the book. There is an awful lot to cover in a single semester.

The book is written for students with very little formal electronics knowledge, but you do need to know some basic logic and hardware concepts. It is based on the i86 architecture, making generalizations where possible. If you have a strong background, or want to learn very detailed concepts - then there are better choices. Sometimes this book over-simplifies concepts to reach its intended audience.

I later found the book useful as a reference tool in a graduate architecture class. Especially the sections on memory - cache, virutal, pagefiles, etc.. Even though my grad class was on the MiPS architecture, the concepts are the same.

Overall, this was a decent text for an undergraduate course.
As other reviewers, (good and bad) have noted - when you are learning, you should always use additional references. Don't depend on this book alone to teach you.

a = b, c, and d.
e = f, g, and h.
b > e while a < f.
ac < gh while fh < bd.
c can be diagrammed in this box if you use h.
g is shown in this truth table if you use a.

Part of what makes this text so difficult to understand is the author's inability to use consistent terms while trying to explain material. In the first chapter, a simple And gate is referred to as 'AND', 'x^y', 'x.y', 'xy', '()()', and 'and'. All true, but used interchangeably while trying to explain makes the concepts incredibly difficult to decipher, particularly when variations for representing other boolean concepts are added to the fray.

The best part of the book, as far as I can tell, is that the key terms are in bold so I know what to plug into Google to try and figure out what it is.

The first chapter is the most important in the book. And yet it is riddled with poor grammar, truth table errors, no answers to questions in the back of book etc. I don't understand how someone who understands the subject can convey so little meaningful information. Actually I do understand, and this book's academic blasphemy should be burnt black as ruined toast. Money down the drain, as Ricky Ricardo "splained" things to Lucy at a much higher level. This book leaves me bitter if you hadn't noticed.

The book is easy to read and explains very well
the main topics: CPU Design, memory management,
I/O. Has a good introduction to Pipelined and
Parallel Processing. Thank you, Dr. Carpinelli.

Most of the other 1-star reviews have covered the outstanding deficiencies of this text. I am 3/4 of the way through this book. It is the second course I have taken that used this text. It is thoroughly inconsistent. Concepts are not explained in a thorough and meaningful way, sometimes not at all. Logical progression (ability to connect concepts) is very poor.

It is at times impossible to solve the problems at the end of the chapter because they lack enough detail to understand what is actually required.

I am not a lazy student who is mad about my bad grade. I got an A in my previous course and am on track to get another; however, it has required A LOT more work than any other courses - mainly because of the terrible text.

Please avoid this text if you possibly can!!!

This is the least pdagogic technical text I have read to date. The material lacks coherence between points. It almost feels like a PowerPoint slide show that is missing the speaker to tie the points together.
That is compounded by poor illustrations that are also full of errata. The high purchase price is unjustified bt the poor production value.
(e.g. Karnaugh maps could have been much clearer if colors were used)
It may turn out to be a suitable reference work for some one who already knows the topic, but surely not to learn from.

This book was required for my Computer Systems & Architecture class. The other reviewers did a good job of highlighting how bad this book is. The only thing I will add is, if this book is required for a course you don't really much choice other than to buy it (so good luck). If you're buying this book for the sake of learning about computer architecture I would not recommend this one.

I read the entire book from cover to cover for a computer engineering course. It definitely went well beyond my wildest expectations in depht and material. Dr. Carpinelli begins each section by relating the new topic to a "Very Simple CPU", then to a "Relatively Simple CPU", and finally to an Intel 8085 processor. This gradual approach is what really makes this book so good, and is what helped me absorb the material so well.

I used this book in Com. Architecture course. It's cover everything from state machine design to parallel processing. Every topics come in correct order and very clear in explanation and example. A lot of pictures and excellent organize.