pcs

This book is horrible. Don't buy it. I'm serious. Not only is it vague, but it also uses pages and pages of text to say things that could be explained ever so much more simply. for instance, when it tells us how to convert from binary, decimal, or hex to packed or unpacked BCD, it gives us a two page or so length description, confusing the reader and numbing the brain. there are frustrating instances of poor grammer and outright non-english _everywhere_ in the text. both the editor and the writer and everyone else who had anything to do with publishing this book obviously did it for cash and not for the sake of teaching people. I'll leave off with this quote, which you can find on page 112, under the heading of 8086 addressing modes;

"A CPU design that has many different types of addressing modes is considered to be commercially desirable because high level languages --such as BASIC, C and Pascal-- can run very quickly and efficiently on which talented CPUs."

This is an outstanding book for those that love programming and architecture. With an abundance of exercises, and writing that's easy and fun to read, understanding the material is surprisingly easy! The book teaches assembly language and interfacing/architecture. A few example exercises are Building a single board computer, modem, graphics controller and even an oscilloscope! Don't worry, the book eases up to these challenges. The final word? Buy this book!