Computer Organization and Embedded Systems

by V. Carl Hamacher

The sixth edition of this book covers the key topics in computer organization and embedded systems. It presents hardware design principles and shows how hardware design is influenced by the requirements of software. The book carefully explains the main principles supported by examples drawn from commercially available processors. The book is suitable for undergraduate electrical and computer engineering majors and computer science specialists. It is intended for a first course in computer organization and embedded systems.

Genres: Computer Science, Textbooks, Technical

736 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best book I've found on self-learning computer organization. Typically references on this subject are unwieldy manuals, and not the best for students looking to gain a holistic understanding of what goes on under the hood of a computer. The few textbooks that exist for this subject seem to lack presenting the birds eye view as well. All in all, tackling this subject seemed to me almost hopeless without an instructor or a course to guide you along.

However, this book provides the much needed chronology so to serve both as a good self-learning and reference text. The book starts with high level understanding with appendices that dive into details of specific instruction sets. It takes a lot of patience to get through the topics, but the explanations are comprehensive. It starts at the very basics and doesn't assume a ton of knowledge.

I haven't tried many of the problems, so I can't speak for the exercises.

[Benjamin Nysetvold · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this text as part of a course on computer organization, which was generally a supremely difficult course, despite a deceptively simple sounding title. Overall, this textbook is fine for what it is trying to accomplish. It does a good job of giving a holistic description of the organization of computers into their various components, but I do not think it is possible to use this book as a standalone material to learn a subject to any desirable degree. It did a good job of filling in gaps when I had unanswered questions, but you cannot (and should not) learn assembly programming only from a book like this.

[Haneen · Rating 4 out of 5]

CEN 468:Computer Organization and design
Summer 2011-2012
SuMoTuWeTh 4:10-5:40 pm
"Great Man"

[Evan Pacini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Has all the rudiments of computer organization. Interesting but complex read.