Review of Computer Organization by Hamacher, Vranesic and Zaky
Computer Organization is a well-respected text for a first level course on computer organization that has been thoroughly revised and updated in its fifth edition. The book covers a range of topics from hardware- and software-oriented perspectives, such as addressing methods, machine program sequencing, the processing unit, input-output organization, memory, arithmetic, pipelining, and examples of CISC, RISC, and stack processors. The book also includes chapters on computer peripherals and computer performance evaluation.
Review of Computer Organization by Hamacher, Vranesic and Zaky
The book illustrates the principles of computer organization by using a number of extensive examples drawn from commercially available computers. The machines discussed in the book are the Motorola 680X0 and 683XX families, Intel 80X86 and Pentium families, ARM family, Sun Microsystems Sparc family, and DEC (Compaq) Alpha family. The 68000, Pentium, and ARM are used as detailed examples early in the book. The authors feel this approach motivates the students and is the most practical.
The book is suitable for a one-semester course in engineering or computer science programs and has a good mix of theory and practice. The book assumes a basic knowledge of digital logic design and elementary programming concepts. The book also provides exercises, problems, and case studies at the end of each chapter to reinforce the concepts and test the understanding of the readers.
The book is written by Carl Hamacher, Zvonko Vranesic, and Safwat Zaky, who are professors of computer engineering at Queen's University, Canada, and University of Toronto, Canada. The book is published by McGraw-Hill Companies in 2002 and has 805 pages. The book has received positive reviews from users and instructors for its clarity, comprehensiveness, and pedagogical features.
Computer Organization is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to learn about the structure and operation of modern computer systems. The book provides a solid foundation for further studies in computer architecture, operating systems, compilers, and parallel computing.
Basic Structure of Computer Hardware and Software
One of the topics covered in the book is the basic structure of computer hardware and software. The book explains how a computer system is organized into different levels of abstraction, from the physical components to the user interface. The book also introduces the concepts of instruction sets, assembly language, and high-level language, and how they are used to program a computer. The book also describes the different addressing modes and instruction formats that are used to access data and control the flow of execution.
The Processing Unit
Another topic covered in the book is the processing unit, which is the part of the computer that performs arithmetic and logic operations on data. The book discusses how the processing unit is designed and implemented using various components, such as registers, ALU, control unit, and microprogrammed control. The book also explains how the processing unit executes instructions using different instruction cycles, such as fetch-decode-execute cycle, interrupt cycle, and DMA cycle. The book also illustrates how pipelining can be used to improve the performance of the processing unit by overlapping multiple instruction stages.
Memory Organization
A third topic covered in the book is memory organization, which is the part of the computer that stores data and instructions for processing. The book describes the different types of memory devices, such as RAM, ROM, cache, and disk, and how they are organized into a memory hierarchy. The book also discusses how memory access is performed using various techniques, such as direct mapping, associative mapping, set-associative mapping, virtual memory, paging, and segmentation. The book also analyzes the factors that affect memory performance, such as access time, hit ratio, and bandwidth. 04f6b60f66