Customer Reviews

Digital Design and Computer Architecture

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The authors have written a book that is very clear an easy to understand. The exercises are well-designed and the real-world examples are a nice touch. The lengthy explanations often found in other textbooks are not seen here. Interestingly it has interview questions too, which are not seen in other books. It's obvious that the authors have devoted a great deal of time and effort to create an accessible text. One of the authors, David Harris, had been working in chip design industries which is a great help to this book (David Harris has another book: CMOS VLSI Design, one of the main textbooks for chip design). I have used "Digital Logic and Computer Architecture" book to teach in our university, I strongly recommend this book.

I am just starting to learn how to program FPGAs and have read several books in the pursuit of this endeavor. This book has been the best I have read so far as a beginner. The authors are very experienced and knowledgeable and it comes through in this book. While other books on this topic appear to have been rushed, poorly edited, and are full of typographical and drawing errors, there were few errors that I noticed in this book. It's two chapters on combinational and sequential logic weren't only good introductions to the topic, they also gave good explanations of the pitfalls that can be encountered with each and how to avoid them. I found the book also did a good job of mixing the right amount of theory with practical applications. I also like that the book covered both VHDL and Verilog and always showed HDL listings side by side for each of the two. It is a great way to learn the second HDL since the side by side listings sort of act like a Rosetta stone of HDLs. The explanation of how to implement the beginnings of a MIPS processor was a great practical application for things learned previously in the book. If I had one wish, it would have been that the accompanying website had a more complete MIPS implementation. When I read the description of the book, I had assumed that the MIPS core described would be more complete. However, what they do cover is a great overview and it implements at least one instruction of each MIPS instruction type so it is a great starting point for a reader to build a more fully functional MIPS implementation.

I used this book in my introductory computer engineering class. Whenever I was confused after lecture, reading the book cleared up a lot of my questions. In fact, it is written so clearly that I think anyone could teach themselves the subject by reading the book. Even in my more advanced classes, I find myself coming back to this book to brush up on Verilog, timing constraints, and other fundamental topics. Also, I have used this book to prepare for many (successful) interviews since it highlights material that interviewers like to ask. Because it is such a great book to learn from and a good reference for many topics, I recommend this book for electrical engineering or computer science students and anyone else who wants to learn about the subject.

I will restate the title of this review, "What a Gem!" This book has to be one the best introductory books on this topic that I have read.

From the first page, all the way to the appendices, this book offers an easy to read flow of explanations, examples and visual illustrations. The tone of the book makes it very reader friendly, in contrast to other books that I have in my shelf where the authors, although very knowledgable in the field, lack the important writting skills and style that is important when introducing a new subject to readers who are mostly college students.

I particularly like the introduction to state machines, as well the coverage on sequential timing analysis. As another reviewer pointed out, it was nice to have a side by side comparison of both Verilog and VHDL languages throughout the text. As someone who regularly uses VHDL, I learned quite a bit about Verilog through these side by sides. The companion website provides a ton of useful material to use along with this text. The labs are very easy to follow, and the code for the MIPS processor is also provided, although not the complete MIPS processor, I feel that the coverage was enough such that the reader/student has a very good understading where he/she can modify it to include more capability for more MIPS instructions.

This book is a must have for those who are currently studying electrical/electronics/computer engineering. Can be used in conjunction with a class as well as for self study.

I highly recommend it.

I find this book teaches the subject very well. Viewing on a Kindle is not easy as the lessons taught discuss diagrams and graphics. the graphics and diagrams don't display on the same page, doesn't matter if I view on a computer, iPad or Kindle. To fully grasp the concepts one must view the graphics on another device such as a computer or iPad while reading on another device. I am glad the publishers allowed us to have copies on multiple devices. After being in my class for two-weeks, I am ordering a physical book. I am glad I have the Kindle version as it allows searching, just wish they included community notes!

This is a very well written book. The wording understandable, but doesn't lose its accuracy or "dumb down" the subject. It covers all the bases needed for some pretty decent digital design (all the way up to a simple MIPS processor). Informative and thought-provoking problems at the end that really tested the knowledge of the subjects. Would recommend for anybody who is new to the subject but wants a good introduction!

I took a digital design class and hated the book. The material is dry in nature, so there's not much you can do to make an enticing design/architecture book. I'm in computer architecture now, and my school is using this book for the first time. I freaking love it. Something about it makes me want to read the whole thing. The art really takes away any intimidation, and the lessons are very concise. Some might feel that there is not enough info in here, but I say "that's what teachers are for!" Anyways, water spilled on my copy and I almost cried. I think I'm going to keep it forever.

Very good introductory book. The organization and flow could be improved but very helpful descriptions and diagrams of circuitry. Also, one of my lightest textbooks as it is a paperback edition and very compact.

... and from the ground up I mean from binary numbers to the design of the components of a modern computer. You learn logic design, how to build components such as counters from the basic logical elements, VHDL and Verilog, and then you learn to put all of these components together into the larger components of a working MIPS microcomputer.

HDLs are introduced in chapter 4 after logic design has been covered. HDLs are then used in chapters five through seven to design first logical building blocks and then entire processors. Chapters six and seven focus on the MIPS architecture adapted from Patterson and Hennessy. Chapters six through eight deal specifically with the architecture of the IA-32 processors. More modern subjects included in chapter seven include an overview of branch prediction, superscalar processors, out-of-order operaton, multithreading, and multicore processors. The chapters stay hands-on by having each one end with practice exercises and interview questions such as those a job applicant might encounter.

This book makes a good prerequisite or companion to studying that traditional text of computer architecture classes everywhere, Computer Architecture, Fourth Edition: A Quantitative Approach (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Architecture and Design). The statistics and mathematics presented in that text make more sense once you see how a real computer is designed from the ground up and you see some of the questions of throughput emerge, but don't quite see how to get to the answers. The tools to quantify and solve the problems of throughput and scale in computer architecture are in Patterson and Hennessy's more mathematical text.

All in all I highly recommend this text to students of computer architecture and design who are at least at a college sophomore level and are no stranger to programming in either the C, C++, or Java languages.