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Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach

John L. Hennessy,

David A. Patterson

4.10 · Rating details · 1,010 ratings · 31 reviews

Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, Fifth Edition, explores the ways that software and technology in the cloud are accessed by digital media, such as cell phones, computers, tablets, and other mobile devices. The book, which became a part of Intel's 2012 recommended reading list for developers, covers the revolution of mobile computing. It also highlights the ...more

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Paperback, Fifth Edition, 493 pages

Published September 16th 2011 by Morgan Kaufmann Publishers (first published April 1990)

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Sep 18, 2008 Nick Black rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

My gargantuan Second Edition of Mssrs. Patterson et Hennessy, reeking with the stench of death forever associated with CS2200 (the foulest corruption of awesome material via wretched undergraduate TA fuckups 'ere I've experienced), sits off in the corner of my room, 1100+ pages of processing, parallelizing, and pipelining. When I found problems assigned to our CS6290 (High-Performance Computer Architecture) class last week out of the Fourth Edition, and that -- of course -- the exercises had bee My gargantuan Second Edition of Mssrs. Patterson et Hennessy, reeking with the stench of death forever associated with CS2200 (the foulest corruption of awesome material via wretched undergraduate TA fuckups 'ere I've experienced), sits off in the corner of my room, 1100+ pages of processing, parallelizing, and pipelining. When I found problems assigned to our CS6290 (High-Performance Computer Architecture) class last week out of the Fourth Edition, and that -- of course -- the exercises had been changed across editions (even if nothing else), I was plenty pissed off. I mean, come on, one of the authors is president of Stanford (and designed MIPS); the other was president of ACM and tenured at UCB (and had his hands in SPARC). I'm by no means a starving undergraduate, but I was in no way thrilled to find myself owing P&H yet another $100. To add insult to injury, this fourth edition had regressed to paperback, and slimmed down by some 600 pages. Overcoming the urge to firebomb GTB&N, I went home to LaTeX up problems 1-11 and 1-13, and find a good Unibomber jacket.

Lo, this is one of the most inspired revisions I've ever seen -- ranking with Knuth's Third, K&R's Second, or the Second as well of Abelman and Sussman (note that Dijkstra never needed more than a first (zeroth) edition -- one merely rereads A Discipline of Programming every few years and gazes back in wonder at time wasted in foolishness). The exercises have indeed been completely redone. Yes, this is normally a cause for groans and the gnashing of teeth -- the goal of invalidating previous years' and other colleges' homeworks is met, at the cost of a revue derelictia, a comedy of errors; graduate students, their ESL skills underwhelmed only by their bewilderment when handed practical tasks, cut swaths of inconsistent, incomprehensible furrow into previously-useful exercise sets -- like the great Midwestern tornadoes, they're with us only for a moment and leave naught but chaos, confusion and strewn papers in their wake. P&H have taken time out of their busy Stanford-pimping schedules to instead lovingly parameterize their exercises, presumably in combination with generators for all things Presentation, and intend to release re-parameterized sets each year (semester?) -- in this way, we assume, the motivator for new editions and thus costs is eliminated (0). This is noble, although it immediately sets a fine challenge to the motivated student: produce fully parameterized solutions to the problems, capable of taking the definition as input and generating the correct instance of output =]. In the immortal words of Tannenbaum's Structured Computer Organization (Fourth Edition): "At the end of this chapter the motivated student ought be able to leave his home, purchase a bag of transistors, and implement the PicoJavaII. Students successfully accomplishing this task will be given extra credit (and a complete psychiatric examination)." (Then again, one of Tannenbaum's students did infamously go on to buy a bag of 386's and implement an OS).

As the adderall wears off and nitrogenated liquid waste distends my innards, I grow proportionately less interested in continuing this review. Summary: if you're going to read one advanced text on processor architecture this semester, H&P4'll cure what ails ye.

(0) This is, of course, terminally brain-damaged. You solve this by making tests count for 100% of the grade (preferably in the form of a single, cumulative final), not by propping up a textbook-publishing industry having all the appeal of highly industrialized gang rape. Is this the purchasing of textbooks, or the Eastern Front circa early '45? Did we lose a war? ...more

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Nov 04, 2019 Sofie Giocante rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I think it's a good read. I found it practical and easy to understand, even though I'm not a big fan of comupter books, I'm more into docmuentation and technical manuals. ...more

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Apr 24, 2020 Meghna Mandava rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Best textbook evr

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Mar 13, 2020 David rated it it was amazing

Changed how I live my life!

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Nov 03, 2016 Gregory Blake rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

An outstanding follow-up to Computer Organization and Design, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach is exactly what it says on the tin: A Quantitative Approach to Computer Architecture. Shocking, I know.

I found Chapter One to be fairly uninteresting, the description of memory models in Chapter 2 and advanced pipelining concepts in Chapter 3 (particularly the discussion of Tomasulo's Algorithm) enlightening, but Chapter 4 is where the book really heats up. It starts light with vector and ...more

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Apr 13, 2015 Erik Z rated it liked it · review of another edition

A bit wordy, like any good american book, but what really gets me about the book is the quote on the back, which will stay with me forever.

"Do you ever have the feeling that computer architectures come and go, but CA:AQA is forever?" =) ...more

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Jan 06, 2020 Taylor rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Definitely quantitative in its approach, which was sometimes too much for me, but definitely as advertised so I won't slight it for that. It's written in that humble sort of way with respect for the topics, and that's something I always appreciate.
I found it was the most boring book ever, but occasionally I'd learn something so good that I couldn't stop reading it. ...more

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Jun 09, 2020 Robin Dong rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Very detailed

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Apr 05, 2019 Samars rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Awesome.

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Sep 07, 2013 Colin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I think I'm probably now in the wrong position to be reading this book, as I've already had the undergrad courses on it. This is a clear and detailed look at the whole spectrum of computer architecture. It even includes a chapter on disk storage, although event I find it very difficult to get excited about RAID and disk drives!
This is a classic textbook on the subject. There's not much more to say. ...more

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Apr 19, 2014 Vasil Kolev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: good-tech-books, tech

Definitely not easy to read.

This is a comprehensive textbook on ISA/architecture design, with very recent examples (i7, cortex-a8), and explains the problems you can see with the current hardware and how some of those get solved. There's a good chapter on GPUs, and not-that-good chapter on "warehouse-sized-computers" (e.g. a google datacenter).

It's good to do at least a cursory read, just to have an idea what happens below the compiler/compiled code/assembly. ...more

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May 11, 2015 Nathaniel Mathews rated it really liked it

Shelves: academic

Hennessy and Patterson have a lot of great numbers and facts in the book, which help ground the theory of computer architecture in reality. There's an excellent mix of content-driven chapters and helpful appendices. The only thing holding this book back from a perfect review is the heavy and obvious bias towards their own MIPS architecture, when in the modern world greater attention to x86 would probably have been more helpful. ...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Pete rated it it was amazing

Arguably one of the most in depth and thoughtful books on computer architecture I have ever had the pleasure to read. A book I keep coming back too. Chapter 2 Memory Hierarchy and 6 Warehouse-Scale Computers are must reads. Highly, highly recommended.

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Jan 22, 2010 DJ marked it as to-read · review of another edition

more adventures in computer architecture

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Feb 17, 2010 Nivas rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: computer-science

Textbook used for computer architecture course

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Jan 27, 2014 Christian Kotz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: computer-science

oldy but goldy

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Jul 13, 2009 Nynke Fokma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: architecture-and-design

Mine also mentions David A. Patterson as author.

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Feb 27, 2013 Manik added it · review of another edition

Shelves: g-p-book1

It is a good Book

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Jun 11, 2018 Kevin Winata rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It puts me to think about architecture as not merely a founded set of rules on how to build computers or each component. But using the trade-offs of each option.

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Jul 16, 2008 Dimitri rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Patterson teaches a graduate course at Berkeley based on this book, and the lectures are available online ...more

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Jan 24, 2010 Diane rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: nerd

The school I teach at, SUNY Old Westbury, assigned me this book for undergraduate Computer Architecture by mistake. This book is intended for graduate students.

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Sep 18, 2008 Nick Black rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The fourth edition is a mighty step up, although this is a classic and well worth having for its expanded historical coverage, pleasantly interwoven in the text as opposed to cold exile on the cdrom.

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