Computer Systems: Architecture, Organization, and Programming

by Arthur B. MacCabe

The chief goal of this text is to familiarize students with the concepts that provide the basis for modern digital computers. It seeks a balance between an over emphasis on the details of a specific machine and the need to provide students with hands-on experience. The body of the text presents general principles; however, this presentation has been organized so that laboratory exercises, providing the necessary hands-on experience, can be easily integrated with the material in the book.

568 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Alejandro Teruel]

I read this book, in Spanish (Sistemas Computacionales: Arquitectura y Organización, 1995) over twenty years ago and found it very detailed. I unearthed a few of my notes on the book:

- Chapter 6 on Subroutine call mechanisms - Very good, precise and exceptional in terminology
- Chapter 7 on Integer representation -too much detail
- Chapter 8 on Floating point numbers - good notation p. 295
- Last chapter (13) on parallel computers -MISD, SIMD, MIMD, distributed memory

I would have to reread it to check how much of it has dated and how it compares to, say, the sixth edition of David Patterson and John Hennessy's Computer Organization and Design MIPS Edition: The Hardware/Software Interface (2020).