Essentials of Computer Architecture (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

For undergraduate courses in computer architecture and organization. Douglas Comer takes a clear, concise approach to computer architecture that students love.By exploring the fundamental concepts from a programmer 's perspective and explaining programming consequences, this unique text covers exactly the material students need to understand and construct eficient and correct programs for modern hardware.

From the Back Cover

This text focuses on the essentials of computer architecture for programmers. It covers all aspects from the low-level building blocks to system-level architectures, and succinctly explains the interface between hardware and software. Sections on assembly language, virtual memory, caching, microcode, and device driver software provide critical insight into how programmers can design efficient, elegant, and reliable software.

KEY FEATURES

• Covers the basics of digital logic and data representation, omitting unnecessary, low-level details.
• Presents broad, accurate coverage of processors, memory, and I/O.
• Includes an overview of assembly languages and programming paradigms.
• Helps the reader understand the impact of systems architecture on programming and debugging.
• Explains why hardware pipelining speeds execution and how programs are optimized to run on a pipeline architecture.
• Discusses design and implementation trade-offs.
• Contains "hands-on" lab exercises that allow students to put principles into practice.
• Provides a supporting Web site with instructor materials at http://www.eca.cs.purdue.edu

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; US ed edition (August 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131491792
• ISBN-13: 978-0131491793
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #756,617 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comer's Computer Architecture text great for non-EE classes, January 19, 2005

By	Anthony Carlisle "antho" (Huntingdon College, Montgomery, AL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I adopted Essentials of Computer Architecture for my course
because of the breadth of coverage and the hardware oriented labs. For a nominal investment in a breadboard and components, my students get hands-on experience with logic gates, directly tied to the text. Dr. Comer's Essentials of Architecture is an exceptional textbook.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a usual Comer book ..., May 3, 2006

By	The Great Mahershi "mahershi" (QoS Land!) - See all my reviews

I have been a big fan of Comer's networking books for a long time now. Back in 1994, beginning my career as a software engineer at a small protocol-software development company, I had used Comer's networking book to understand TCP/IP suite. (Back then Tanenbaum's 2ed book dealt with theoretical concepts rather than real-life examples.) Comer's networking book helped me get off the ground and become very productive with basic embedded IP protocol stack in a week.

Subsequently, out of admiration for such a great teacher, I have bought almost all the various books that Comer has written.

Essentials of Computer Architecture was the latest addition to the Comer-books section of my personal library. A few days back I decided to read it. And I was amazed at the bad and incoherent writing in this book. My first guess was that Comer had not even written this book. Somebody was pulling off a scam off his name. Further reading convinced me that this book is worthless and definitely not worthy of carrying Prof Comer's name on it.

The book starts with the premise that computer arch and org is a required course in all CompSci and Eng depts. Without doubt, most of the currently popular books on CompArchOrg are heavily biased towards people with electrical engineering background. But, people who would eventually be involved in developing software also need to understand how computers are organized and designed. So, apparently Comer decided to write this book focusing on "concepts" rather than details. I figured only Prof Comer could set and achieve such a lofty goal. So, I started reading the book.

The problem with the "concepts" rather than details approach starts becoming apparent from the very firt page: You cannot teach digital logic without some references to electrical and electronics concepts. The high level digital logic exposition presented in this book is bound to leave any student (reading from only this book) very, very, very ... confused about eveyrthing he/she reads in the few pages devoted to digital logic.

Secondly, you cannot talk about data representation and the importance of 2-s complement, etc without talking about how digital adders and multipliers work. "Why 2-s complement" can only be answered by students who have a good understanding of how arithmentic circuits can be built using digital logic components.

The book spirals downward from the beginning adding more and more confusing "concepts" without any proper explanation.

I think you would do yourself a lot of good just reviewing the slides on the ESA website. Those slides have about all the contents that the book has.

Finally, for real computer arch and org courses, I am sure there are much better books out there that talk about the details as well as the concepts. I feel readers of this book would come out of school completely confused about what is computer arch and org and its importance in compSciEng departments.

I would wait for a 2ed that is worthy of Prof Comer's name.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Computer architecture for the non-hardware professional, June 27, 2008

By	K. Easterbrook "GeekyBunny" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was looking for a book that would give me a better understanding of how computer hardware works, without requiring me to have taken EE courses in college. This book was exactly what I was looking for - the Computer Hardware 101 class I missed.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know at more detailed level how their computer works, and particularly recommend it to other software professionals who want to know more from a theoretical perspective. Professor Comer introduced me to TCP/IP over a decade ago, and now he's done the same thing for computer architecture - this book si both technically crisp and very readable.