Computer Organization and Architecture

by William Stallings

This book provides a clear, comprehensive presentation of the latest developments in the organization and architecture of modern-day computers, emphasizing both fundamental principles and the critical role of performance in driving computer design. A basic reference and companion for self-study, it conveys concepts through a wealth of concrete examples highlighting modern CISC and RISC systems. A five-part organization covers: an overview, the computer system, the central processing unit, the control unit, and parallel organization. For computer engineers and architects, product marketing personnel in computer or communications companies, and for information systems and computer systems personnel.

Genres: Computer Science, Reference, Nonfiction, Computers, Programming, Textbooks, Science

750 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 1987

About the author

William Stallings is an American author. He has written computer science textbooks on operating systems, computer networks, computer organization, and cryptography.

Reviews

[Marwa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hard to read or understand if you have no back ground about the topic

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been 25 years since I used this textbook in university. It took me over a week to re-read the 8th edition of this standard textbook (admittedly I skipped some of the technical sections), but at over 815 pages, it is still quite formidable. I like the broad coverage of a range of architectures from mobile ARM to Mainframe. The ARM world is new to me, and I don't quite understand some of the design decisions, it just appears less attractive. The new multithreaded, multiprocessor architectures were also new, but what was a big relevation was the importance of cache memory in the memory hierarchy, I don't recall that as being so crucial back then, perhaps because there wasn't that much memory to go around anyways. I enjoyed the re-read, it is definitely better than a journalist's account of the history of computing.

[Headsink headsink · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best writer in this subject. William Stalling, you are my officially my MASTER.

[Kanada · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is absolutely a trash to me. Hard to read/understand its contents. He has a talent which explains easy things too complicated. I also want to mention about the figures in the book. The figure is not expressing its desired information well. The figures are not focusing a core thing, thus the contents are more hard to understand. In the figure, you will see many boxes and arrows. So, what are the meanings of them? Even worse, Poor support to buyers, Too many errors exist still. The author doesn’t care about that and do not update errata, although i’ve sent an mails many times.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't bring myself to like this book. It's good in that it does cover many topics related to computer architecture, and its internal instructions. Very detailed stuff and can be very informative as a primer. The reason why I can't like it is because it's written in a boring manner.

[Harison Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um bom livro de AC. Mais indicado para quem está iniciando na área, se comparado ao livro de Patterson e Hennessy.

[Eti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the best book I came across for Computer System Organization and I loved it.

There are some good points about this book that I liked:
1. Extremely easy to understand.
2. Cover mostly all the topics.
3. The construct of this book is all good, I mean the way writer presented all the topics.
4. The content is also good.

So, this book is something I'll recommend to every Computer Science student.

A must have!

[William Darian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some aspects of the book are undoubtedly verbose in terms of explaining the same thing over and over. Sometimes, the concepts in this book are not very clearly explained. I think a concise explanation should content the reader. Moreover, some depictions of concepts showed incorrect and sometimes unrepresentative diagrams. Other than that, I am really satisfied with the amount of information the book provides.

[Mohsen]

a good book but not the best, I think Hennesy Patterson is better.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

This textbook was a decent introduction to Computer Organization and Architecture. It's reasonably easy to understand. I can see how this was published first in the 80s, but this modern 10th edition I used covers a huge breadth of modern information. I did not use the entire book, however, as our professor relied more on his personal materials - this book was used as a reference for which I read up to the midterms about halfway through the book. I sometimes need more information than what has been given. I'd give it between a 3-4, but I'm putting 4 to balance out some 1-star reviews that might be overly harsh. Stallings is a good book for starters. Given all its praise, I might check out Hennessey, but other sections using that textbook complained of more abstraction vs. concreteness. I would say this Stallings book errs on the concrete side.

[Yasser Sebai · Rating 3 out of 5]

came through most of its chapters and it was really interesting to me to uncover the magic that laying underneath that large green PCB which we call it "computer" ...
well explained algorithms and techs was provided , but though rookies -just like me- could use little more clarity..

[Michelangelo Rubino · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best book on this topic and, clearly, not for anybody. You should have a certain background in computer science or similar, otherwise it will be hard. I really liked the parts on the concurrency and the scheduling, the Memory management part was quite tough instead.

[Mohammed Shalan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book if you've got a basic background about logic design.

[Jimmy Alford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dry as a bone but such a great insight into how computers work at a low level.

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

couldnt put down!

[Jonathan Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A descriptive book, Computer Organization and Architecture, tenth edition, by William Stallings implemented a top-down approach for learning low-level aspects of traditional computers from vacuum tube architecture to the contemporary standard that is von Neumann architecture. There is a variety of information related to computer architecture in the relevant book by Stallings that challenges students so conceptual and applied knowledge is understood. Functioning similar to Thomas' Calculus with problems listed that go beyond the instruction provided within the textbook, the relevant Stallings text demands exploration to supplemental sources of information for knowledge that meets the specifications of chapter exercises consisting of review questions and problems.

[Zhuzi_20 · Rating 1 out of 5]

This proof of sign extension for negative numbers in two's complement is purely a process of mathematical and algebraic transformation, without any conceptual involvement of complements.

However, in terms of conceptual understanding, complements come before two's complement; complements represent a higher-level conceptual dimension of two's complement. Without understanding complements, one cannot truly understand two's complement.

Therefore, this proof process can be said to directly assume the nonexistence of complements.

[Cynbel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does a good job with explaining computer organization and handling CISC and RISC. Definitely did a better job of explaining everything compared to the professor that taught the class I took. I'd say the biggest issue would be some of the end of chapter questions as some seem to be pretty vague.

[Irwan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Syllabus in Computer science

[Phrut Rasri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book !!!

[Alvian Surbakti · Rating 3 out of 5]

good

[Arslan · Rating 5 out of 5]

i want to read this book

[Raffaello · Rating 5 out of 5]

6th ed.

[Augusto Pellegrinetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10

[Mustafa]

good

[Houssem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Served me well when I took a class on the subject, no major complaints.

[Touny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Readable, Clear and Concise. My favorite one.