Inside the Machine: An Illustrated Introduction to Microprocessors and Computer Architecture

I liked the simplicity in the book. It is very easy to read and understand things written on it. I classify the book as introductory level in computer architecture giving an overview on the today's microprocessors. I would recommend it for those who want to learn something about microprocessors on their own, outside the class or want to read some brief details about the most current microprocessors (i.e. Core 2 Duo) or architectural comparison between different microarchitectures (i.e. IBM and Intel cores). I don't think that the book is good as a text book for computer architecture. Instead I would recommend the Hennessy and Patterson "Computer Architecture - Quantitative Approach" I personelly enjoyed reading this book.

I cannot say too many good things about the dealer and this book to do it justice, it is written in such a way that even a beginner will leave knowing all of the inner workings of the computer, it also gives the reader historical information that is both interesting and educational, the book consists of written material, diagrams and photos, which when combined makes it easy to learn a lot about the computer

In attempting to get a more readable introduction to the hardware side of computers I picked up this book alongside Patterson and Hennessey. It is certainly easier to digest than a textbook but it is now outdated on the material in the later chapters so am not sure if its really worth it after 2/3 the way through the book. It certainly gives a great perspective on Intel and some ARM architectures as well as the various trade offs the engineers considered when designing as well as the general preference from marketing teams for clock speed maximization over better pipelined designs. For learning about the hardware specifications of modern RISC CPUs this is a good book. Mainly focusing on Intel designs and their evolution as well as ARM and Apple later one gets a thorough readable introduction to late 90s and early 2000s hardware engineering. This book is now dated and has not been revised with a new edition and so the latter part of the book is of increasingly less value but for the basics of things like the fetch decode cycle I think this book will serve the more casual reader well. For a more comprehensive textbook one should look elsewhere as those, being classroom based, will get naturally revised over time. I do like this book but prefer, But How do it Work, as an alternative introduction to the hardware side of computers from the ground up.

I just read this book as part of a review of the subject because I have been assigned to teach computer architecture after having not taught the subject since the 1990s. This is a,great book with numerous contemporary examples.

I started with very limited understanding of computer architecture. What I had was a jumble of marketing terms I had picked up from reading popular PC magazines. This book helped me understand the basics of computer architecture, and quickly took me on a fun and insightful tour of major 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. I have gained enough understanding from this book to move on to more quantitative treatments of processor design.

Somewhat interesting, but gets pretty tiresome after a while. Not all that well written. If you're really into processors, you probably know a fair amount of this already. You'll probably learn a lot of new things about the details of various Intel and PowerPC processor generations, but you'll have to go through a lot of stuff you already know as well. If you're not really into processors, or really curious, this book isn't for you.

I'm a professional programmer and I wanted a book to brush up on the hardware knowledge I learned back in college. I found this book to be an appropriate level for what I wanted and I enjoyed the real world examples, diagrams and clear neature. My only complaint is that it could use an updated edition with some of the more modern architectures.

I found this book useful and interesting. I am 66 years old and understood computer architecture through the 1970s (so, before superscalar in desktop PCs) and this book brings it to 2007. The book starts slow for non-computer science readers and then picks up the pace and gets adequately technical and informative for the remainder of the book. I appreciated learning more about Intel x86-64 CISC vs. some of the RISC architectures and how Intel performance caught up. I would have liked more illustrations and step-by-step examples for the register renaming section, which was not completely clear to me in detail. I also wanted to better understand DDR4 multi-banked memory, memory controllers, address assignment mapping with multiple multi-banked SDRAMs, and L2/L3 cache (including non-inclusive L3 cache) beyond what the book covers (and is hard to find online) but the book is a good vehicle for what it covers, which is basically everything you want to know about microcomputers unless you plan to design them. Now I want to read "Computer Architecture - A Quantitative Approach", 6th edition, to learn more. I also recommend the Coursera course "Computer Architecture" from Princeton University after "Inside the Machine".

Explica los conceptos de manera clara y precisa. Con el apoyo de imágenes adecuadas,lo cual ayuda a entender más fácilmente la información.

Excellent book. Arrived in a very good condition.

Hello everyone, This book is a really valuable resource for learning, and not necessarily how the CPU thinks, but a new way of organizing things around. It can teach you a lot about engineering so that's a high value information coming out from this book. Not really easy for the absolute beginner I could say. Probably it's going to be really really easy for a math-background reader.

J'avais pris ce livre à cause du titre "illustrated introduction". Une introduction visuelle a l'architecture des machines voila qui me semblait prometteur, et je comptais l'offrire après lecture a une étudiante. La première partie n'est pas si mauvaise (quoique très incomplète) et l'auteur explique (assez bien) en utilisant les analogies bien connues de la chaine de montage et des employés de bureau;les mécanismes de l'execution du code par le processeur. Hélas cela dérive assez vite vers les pires discussions geek qui infestent l'Internet (l'auteur vient de ars technica).Je ne sais pas pour vous mais moi je n'ai strictement rien a foutre si vous me passez l'expression de l'historique des Power PC et Pentium.Quel interet de savoir que les Pentium favorisent le traitement des calculs en virgules flottantes alors que pour les IBM/Motorola c'est plutot les entiers ? Il faut attendre le capitre 9 pour avoir un explication naive de la différence 32/64 bits et le chapitre 11 pour qu'on aborde (enfin !) la mémoire cache. Rien ou très peu sur les portes logiques,les circuits combinatoires,l'interface avec le bus mémoire,l'encodage des instructions etc etc etc. Les 2/3 du livre ne parle que de Power PC vs P4.On dirait les "débats" sur les consoles de jeux ex "oui mais la Snes est une fausse 16bits ,la Megadrive a un 68000 bla bla".Le sujet des processeurs est bien plus vaste que IBM vs Intel.Et d'ailleurs ou sont les ARM ? Quant a ce qui m'avait attiré sur le descriptif on se retrouve avec 50 variantes du même schéma.

I love this book! It's clear, easy to follow, and in-depth. It's extremely addictive reading, not something I honestly ever expected to say about a book on processors, but I don't think I've ever read a computing book quite so fast before or gleaned quite so much enjoyment out of one. An easy 5 stars.