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

This Best Selling Inside the Machine: An Illustrated Introduction to Microprocessors and Computer Architecture [Hardcover] tends to SELL OUT VERY FAST!!

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: No Starch Press; 1 edition (November 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593271042
• ISBN-13: 978-1593271046
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
  

This Best Selling Inside the Machine: An Illustrated Introduction to Microprocessors and Computer Architecture [Hardcover] tends to SELL OUT VERY FAST!!

Customer Reviews

This book is an introduction to computers that fills the gap between classic and challenging books like Hennesy and Patterson's, and the large number of "How Your Computer Works" books that are too basic for engineers.
The first four chapters lay the conceptual groundwork for later chapters' studies of real-world microprocessors. These chapters use a simplified example processor, the DLW, to illustrate basic and intermediate concepts like the instructions/data distinction, assembly language programming, superscalar execution, pipelining, the programming model, and machine language. This section is essential reading for those who are new to the world of microprocessors.
The middle section of the book consists of detailed studies of two popular desktop processor lines: the Pentium line from Intel and the PowerPC from IBM and Motorola. These chapters walk the reader through the chronological development of each processor line, describing the evolution of the microarchitectures and instruction set architectures under discussion. Along the way, more advanced concepts such as speculative execution, vector processing, and instruction set translation are introduced and explored via a discussion of one or more real microprocessors. Throughout the middle part of the book the approach is to explain each new processor's features in terms of how they differ from analogous features found in predecessors or competitors. The comparative part of the book culminates in chapters 7 and 8 which consists of detailed comparisons of two starkly different and important processors: Intel's Pentium 4 and Motorola's MPC7450, popularly known as the G4e.
After a brief introduction to 64-bit computing and the 64-bit extensions to the popular x86 instruction set architecture in chapter 9, the microarchitecture of the first mass-market 64-bit processor, the IBM PowerPC 970, is treated in chapter 10. The study of the 970, the majority of which is also directly applicable to IBM's POWER4 mainframe processor, concludes the book's coverage of PowerPC processors. Chapter 11 covers the organization and functioning of the memory hierarchy found in almost all modern computers.
The final chapter contains a detailed examination of the latest generation of processors from Intel: the Pentium M, Core Duo and Core 2 Duo. This chapter contains the most detailed discussion of these processors available online or in print, and it contains some new information not previously released and specially granted by Intel for printing in this book.
I found this book a great read - it is both accessible and enlightening, even for someone with many years experience of working with microprocessors. I really liked how the author used 4-color diagrams to illustrate whatever point he was trying to make. I also appreciate that unlike Patterson's classic book, you don't need to review your combinatorics and discrete math before and after opening the book. The following is the table of contents:
Chapter 1: Basic Computing Concepts
Chapter 2: The Mechanics of Program Execution
Chapter 3: Pipelined Execution
Chapter 4: Superscalar Execution
Chapter 5: The Intel Pentium and Pentium Pro
Chapter 6: PowerPC Processors: 600 Series, 700 Series, and 7400
Chapter 7: Intel's Pentium 4 vs. Motorola's G4e: Approaches and Design Philosophies
Chapter 8: Intel's Pentium 4 vs. Motorola's G4e: The Back End
Chapter 9: 64-Bit Computing and x86-64
Chapter 10: The G5: IBM's PowerPC 970
Chapter 11: Understanding Caching and Performance
Chapter 12: Intel's Pentium M, Core Duo, and Core 2 Duo

Jon Stokes' Inside the Machine falls somewhere between Computer Science textbook and Popular Science reading. It's packed with a lot of information that is very technical, while not quite going to the technical depth of a classroom textbook. It does make heavy use of analogy to render some hard to grasp concepts a bit easier for the non CS major.
Inside the Machine is fairly dense with both content and color. Lots of information is available here with colorful diagrams and illustrations to back it up. You'll need a more than basic understanding of computers and at least a bit of programming experience under your belt to get the most out of it. With that, the average computer enthusiast can pick up this book and find themselves in possession of a clear and concise guide to basic processor theory and real processor architecture. if you are interested in how microprocessors really work and why they were developed as they were but not interested in obtaining a CS degree this book is your first, best stop.
The book is divided into 12 chapters, with a bibliography and index following. The first four chapters lead the reader through basic computing concepts, discussing how a program actually executes when it arrives at the processor and brings us through pipelined and superscalar execution, ways to increase speed and throughput of processors.
Once a basic understanding of how the microprocessor works is reached, Stokes then disects a number of popular processors that have existed in the last decade and a half. These chapters cover the Intel's Pentium and Pentium Pro, the 600. 700 and 7400 Power PC processors, Intel's P4 vs Motorola's G4, 64-bit and x86-64 processors, the G5 and IBM's PowerPC 970 and finally Intel's Pentium M, Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processors. If you do want to delve deeper into the world of microprocessors the bibliography supplied in the book is a great resource.
If anything in that last paragraph sounded really interesting to you or made you say "Oh I loved that processor!" than this book should go on your to-read list.
I was not a CS major and though I do work in IT I'm not an expert on microprocessor architecture. I knew what I needed to know about the products to do my job. When this book came along it was a real joy for me to read it. I've looked at a number of popular text books concerned with microprocessors and while reading this book won't get you a job with Intel it will certainly be a bit easier to digest and thus offer a lot more to readers like myself.
Don't expect to breeze through this if you're going to pick it up though. You should glance through it first if you have a chance. If everything you're reading in the first four chapters is causing you to say "uh huh" and "oh yeah" then you're ready for some more advanced material and won't really need this unless you're into historical data about microprocessors. If you're familiar with some of the concepts and would like a solid grounding in current architecture based on understanding popular prior models then this book is certainly for you.
For me a broad understanding of how these things worked and a bit of programming was all I needed to enjoy this book and what it has to offer. While you won't be up late a few nights glued to the page (well, okay I was up late one night. I was really digging into the differences between the P4 and the G4 and thinking "Finally, that's what all this meant" when my wife told me in no uncertain terms to shut the light out and go to bed. That's just me though.) You will find just about every page full of useful theory or practical knowledge that will increase your understanding and prepare you for the next section of the book until you find yourself reading about processors being sold right now.

 

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