computer technology

As a BA student for computer science, I found this book very helpfull in learning about how the computer's "guts" work, in courses of computer structure and computer architecture.

The book introduces the different hardware components of the computer and the way they are all coordinated. It does so in a very simple ( yet not simplified ) manner, so that even "dummies" in this field ( like myself ) can get a very good comprehension of the fundamental approaches in computer design and architecture.

I have three of M. Mano's books and this one is the one I've liked the most. I found the author's exposition of the material good on average. I'm using this book for self-study. The book provides a nice overview of computer architecture by focusing on the basic concepts in manner that is not dependent on a particular real-life architecture.

I must say however that I gotten up to chapter 11 and have become totally unmotivated to finish the book (only two chapters left). I've gone through most of the interesting problems of each chapter but have no clue to the 'correctness' of some of them since the book doesn't come with solutions.

One thing that I really dislike about a book is the lack of an errata sheet. All of Mano's books I own lack an errata sheet. I've noticed some errors in the book although nothing major.

Recommendation: As far as I know there are no really good books in the area of computer architecture. If you're looking for a simple introductory book on computer architecture, I would recommend this book. Avoid this book if you're looking for a more technical treatment on the subject.

It's hard for me to believe this book didn't get good reviews. It's an awesome book that succintly details the design of a CPU. The author uses a hands on approach by showing you how to design a simple CPU from scratch. Even though simple, this CPU has a useable set of instructions (including IO ones), interrupts, and a memory subsytem. RTL is used to convey what is done at each instruction cyle, which is great. For me, this is the first time
I see a practical application of RTL. The book could have been more interesting if it provides an implementation in VHDL, or Verilog, but i guess that's left as an excercise for the reader.