Customer Reviews

How Computers Work: Processor and Main Memory

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

 

 

I cannot understand why some reviewers gave this book a low rating unless they did not take time to really read it and think. The book requires you to think so make sure you are prepared to do that. I found that when I read it a second time it really clicked.

I always wondered how the core of a computer really works. I know how to program, but what actually happens in the circuitry? How does it work? If you want to know this, this is the only book I have ever found which actually explains it. "Pattern on the Stone" is good for concepts, but this book is far more explicit and puts it all together. I dare you to find a better explanation anywhere for how a processor actually works as comprehensive and simple as this.

This is a great book for anyone who has ever wanted to know how computers really work. The book starts from scratch and is suitable for the complete beginner and yet complex enough that even the best hardware guru would be intrigued. I'm a Computer Science Major and I wish that my upper division hardware class would use this book, its great! It's straight to the point and is very clear in its concepts. I would definitely recommend this book.

... and maybe construct a simple one!
I simply just not understand the negative reviews this book has had. It is just WONDERFUL! It starts with a very simple circuit, and go on adding ideas, one step at time, building a computer from its inner parts! Of course, some parts are more difficult than others, but just give it a second and third read...
This is the book I have been searching, as a computer science teacher, to create more interesting material to my students.

This is a great book for those of you who want to know how computers really work. This book gets down to the core hardware level and intrigues you with the secrets of Computer and Electrical Engineering. Its great for Beginners and Advanced Computer Gurus alike. I really like this book and I would highly recommend it. This is the kind of book universities should use in upper division hardware classes!

For anyone who has read scientific literature, you know just how horribly unbearable the author's ego can drag out a simple fact, into a display of gravity, and his absolute confidence (unjustifiably, of course). How refreshing it is then, for someone to just be their own real self, and honestly discuss a topic starting from absolute zero, and yet so deftly.. almost imperceptibly.. guide you into the darkest depths of understanding, beyond the reach of mere scholarship, and into the esoterica of what must be a lifetime of study?? This book would be an excellent satisfaction to those with hungry minds, who do not work in the field. Alternatively, if you are new and entering, or merely a bit rusty from veering into the fringes of your true chosen field, this will 'snap' you quickly into the upper tiers of expertise amongst peers. In short, I would highly recommend this work.

This book consits of explanations of diagrams. It is repetitive, boring and monotonous. In large part, the book focuses on the various ways that a circuit using a relay can be constructed, without ever explaining how all of this fits into the working of a computer.

Maybe I missed something two of the other reviewers didn't, but for me this book is plain awful. The diagrams look as though they have been freehand drawn, nothing seems to be clearly explained, in short I can't comprehend anything from this book.