Customer Reviews

Peter Norton's Inside the PC

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

 

 

This was the first book I read on computers, when I didn't know anything about them. That was two years ago and now that I look back it was a decent book. I remember reading it and being fascinated, even though some stuff was a little complex. All in all this was a good book. If you're an absolute newbie then read it.

This book is not good for advanced users though. Whether it claims to be or not, DON'T BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU KNOW A FAIR AMOUNT ABOUT COMPUTER HARDWARE ALREADY. If you do you will be disappointed. That's why I always go for books that are more advanced to push myself.

Inside the PC has several good diagrams, one showing the physical connections between the CPU, cache, memory, video controller, chipsets, PCI and ISA buses, and another showing how data and address lines connect to a standard 32MB DIMM module. Many explanations in the book, however, head in a promising direction, but fall short, as this excerpt shows: "The CPU, with its 64 data wires, connects to 8 bytes of memory at a time. This means that the three least-significant bits of any address may be ignored in pointing to locations in main memory." It is unclear how the second sentence ties in with the first, and why the three least-significant bits may be ignored.

The book attempts to cover too many aspects of the PC, from CPUs and chipsets, to inkjet printers and the future of the Internet, with varying levels of detail and organization. Advanced readers will not need the chapter covering the basics of bits and bytes, but will wish for a more detailed and thorough discussion on paging, while novice readers just learning about bits and bytes in Chapter 3 are probably not ready for DEBUG and the probing of memory locations in Chapter 5, especially when Chapter 4 veers off in an unrelated direction to discuss motherboards, ribbon cables, and legacy standards; a more defined target audience (beginner, intermediate, or advanced) is needed, as is a narrower scope of topics, preferably one limited to the components and technology that is "Inside the PC."

Back in the 80's, many of us first learned about PC hardware from Peter Norton's excellent "Inside the IBM PC." John Goodman carries on the tradition with the 8th edition (probably 4x the size of the original). Covering this much material thoroughly, understandably, and accurately isn't a simple task. John has done a great job both in attention to detail and in making the text a pleasure to read. This book also has an excellent index (46 pages!), which you don't often find these days and which makes it easy to locate what you're looking for.

This a handsomely conceived and executed volume. The problems begin when you start reading it. An astonishing number of topics are confusingly discussed and related, creating confusion where clarity would be appreciated. The author(s) also seem to have made no determination beforehand who the target audience would be, jumping from beginner-level explanations to pointlessly involved details. Techies won't find much to use here, and tyros will find themselves endlessly reading and re-reading passages trying to glean some meaning. Trust me- there are better- much better- basic manuals on PC's!

The book covers many aspects of PC hardware and software and it is very good if you need an overview. If you want understand the details of these aspects this is not your book. Sometimes the concepts are difficult to understand because there are not enough figures.

Eighth edition:
This book is fabulous. No argument possible, it's a great book. It may be better suited to some experience/interest levels than others, but by any standard it's an excellent book.

It's like an "Encyclopedia of the IBM-PC," but with in depth treatment of the topics. If you've ever wondered what any acronym (PCMCIA, e.g.) means, you will find it in this book. The difference is that whereas another book may explain that acronym with only a sentence or a paragraph, Norton gives you seven pages on that and related technologies including: ATA protocol, CardBus, Card Services, CIS, flash, Media storage format, Socket Services.... Multiply that level of detail times every computer acronym you've ever wondered about and you have a valuable resource.

The book is an in-depth overview to the PC. You get deeper coverage of each topic then you would normally get in a book of this type, and therein lies the main value. Still, since it's an overview, if you want to dig into a topic you are given excellent references to external sources.

As expected, given Norton's roots in the disk utilities area, great depth is given to the subject of hard and floppy disks and their structure and organization. You won't find a better or deeper treatment of this material anywhere other than Norton's materials. If you want to understand the FAT, FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, master boot block, master boot record, partition table, etc., this is the place.

The book targets beginners to experts, and I think that's a strength. Beginners get introductory material (like what is a byte or a serial cable) explained, while experts get deep treatment (like why a 16550A UART is better than a 16550 p429). That makes this single book a great reference for anyone, especially a newbie. You may have to study some pages carefully or even look up external resources, but isn't that unavoidable?

Sadly, tragically, this book is left over from an earlier, better, time of computing. The first edition of this book is from a day when you owned your own computer, not Microsoft. In that day, fun, excitement, experimentation, discovery, fascination, and programming the hardware yourself were still part of the equation. In that day it was popular to use a tool like DEBUG and poke around in the portions of memory managed by the operating system and really understand what was going on. Now, Windows is so complex and sophisticated that poking around like that is of limited usefulness. Still, tell me where are you going to get anyone to tell you about DEBUG or using I/O ports to talk to the CMOS or real-time clock these days?

Also the info on understanding the hard and floppy disks, while fascinating, is of limited use in modern times. Back in the day when a 10MB hard disk cost you $1000, yes, you might take the time to use DEBUG to poke around the sectors and repair the partition table. In modern times I would not do that. I would just go to "Best Buy" and buy a new one for $50 and use the other 2 days of my weekend for reading this excellent book.

.. I was not overly impressed. Being new to the inner workings of a PC I was immediately lost. I've had to read chapters over in order to understand what the authors are trying to say. What has helped me was another computer manual that was beutifully illustrated and helped me to recognize the parts & pieces of hardware that Mr. Norton referred to in his book. I did like the glossary though. This book is definitely not one to recommend to beginners.

Peter Norton's Inside the PC, Eighth Edition, and holds your attention better than most other technical books. It is written in a conversational style, which is easy to understand. Norton lays out his topics logically beginning with basic hardware information and becoming increasingly more complex. He uses pictures, graphs, and tables sparingly, only when necessary. Some of the most interesting sections are his Historical Asides, Notes, Technical Notes, Tips, Standards, and his own Principles, which come from his personal experience. There is a Quick Navigator inside the front cover that tells you where in the book to find general areas of information. The book has a useful glossary and a cross-referenced index. This is a good informational book at an intermediate level.

It's a well written book. It is basic because it is written for basic to advanced users!

it's was a well written book. but, somewhat it's too basic for advanced users.