The Essentials of Computer Organization and Architecture

by Linda Null and Julia Lobur

Book Overview

Essentials of Computer Organization and Architecture focuses on the function and design of the various components necessary to process information digitally. This title presents computing systems as a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0763737690
• ISBN13: 9780763737696
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Publishers
• Length: 799 Pages
• Weight: 3.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 7.6" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Informative

I personally liked this text. It is not perfect, and some sections should be more elaborated, but otherwise it is rather informative. Covers boolean algebra, logic gates, memory organization, and many other good things. It can't be read quickly. You will have to spend time to read carefully. Positive: for the most part questions for each chapter can be answered based on information in the book. In my life I have encountered text where there were NO way questions could be answered based solely on the info in the text. So, if you getting this text for class, it is good news. Negative: I feel that some sections could be elaborated more with further examples. For instance binary divisions and multiplications would be better with couple more examples. I feel like I didn't waste time reading it, so you too could learn something from it (unless of course you already know the subject well...).

Textbook for Computer Organization class

Depending on the competence of the instructor for this course, this book can be either an extremely helpful supplement or a fairly complex crash course to Computer organization. The first four or five chapters truly hold the bulk of information needed to understand the general concepts behind computer organization. The rest of the book just goes into more detail about most of the concepts explained in the first five chapters. Using MARIE is extremely easy and gives the reader a good understanding on how a simple assembly language works. The Powerpoint presentations on each chapter are a great supplement to the book. The questions in the back of each chapter are fairly challenging as well. Good textbook overall.

Great reference and introductory book

I'm a computer practioneer and know a little about computer hardware, but not much. For the novice reader, this book is great! It is written well, and is thorough in its coverage. I think it's a great reference book (even though it was apparently written as a textbook for teaching) and have used it multiple times in my job already.I recommend this textbook for those "beginners" who need a good introduction to computer organization and hardware or for those who need a refresher.

Essentials of Computer Org/Arch: It's About Time

As a teacher, I wasn't too thrilled about yet another computer organization and architecture book. However, this one is different. It is written from a computer science point of view and it aimed at a one semester sequence course. After attending SIGCSE, I was aware of the new Computing Curriculum 2001. This book appears to follow that curriculum, even in the amount of hours recommended per topic. If you are looking for a computer engineering book, this one probably won't be top on your list. However, the selection of topics for both computer science (and information systems) is perfect. If you are looking for an org/arch reference book, this would be a good candidate.Strong points: Concise, clear writing style (easy for students to understand); lots of examples; many exercises, at varying levels of difficulty; good breadth for a one course sequence; logical organization; simple "learning" architecture (with simulation software); up-to-date errata (on book web page).Potential weak points: If you teach more than 2-3 weeks of assembly language programming, you'll have to supplement with a different book; all software is in Java (I don't consider this a weakness, but some people may).