Advanced PC Architecture

I bought this textbook as a supplementary resource book for a Microprocessor class at school. It can be used as either a textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in PC Architecture or as a general resource guide for practicing engineers. It provides a comprehensive, practical coverage of PC architecture in an easy-to-read writing style. Although the book says it's advanced and provides advanced topics, it also provides a good simplified foundation to understanding the components of the PC. The format of the book is intuitive and modernized. There are many functional block diagrams of various configurations and interesting boxed notes throughout the book. There are also many remarkable data and facts items conveniently located all through the book. You'll also find many insightful comparison lists, tables, and diagrams that help clarify concepts. Overall I like the writing style, format, and layout of the book.The book describes each of the main PC processors and compares their performance. It also observes the different types of main interface devices and shows how they work with the complete system. Past, current, and future motherboards are discussed in detail so that students and professionals can understand how data is passed around the PC. The text illustrates general PC Architecture principles and design methodologies. It is written on the premise that the student may know the basic components of a computer system but may have not had any formal training. The authors have done an admiral job at providing a complete picture of the workings of a PC.SOME (but not all) of the topics covered in each chapter include: 1) The History of computers. How computers have evolved. Which computers have flopped and which have been successful. Top Achievers and Under-achievers.2) PC Basics, Buses, Interrupts, Interfacing, How Bios works3) Introduction to Intel Processors, A close-up look at the Processor. The 8088. Memory addressing.4) 8086 Basics, Assembly language elements, timing, and moving data around in Memory.5) 80486. Specifics about the processor, data definition, equates, memory, and timing. 6) Bus Cycles, Bus Controller and Direct Memory Access. 7) CMOS, Memory and I/O, and Ports8) Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) and Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC) 9) Programmable Peripheral Interface (PPI) and Programmable Timer Controller (PTC) 10) Introduction to the Pentium. Overview, Development and Terminology. Also details the Pentium II and Pentium Pro.11) Transaction Phase Signals and additional Pentium Pro Signmals12) Memory basics, subsystems, and errors.13) MMX Technology. Also profile of Pentium II.14) Instruction Execution in general. The Pentium II block diagram, execution implementation, bus features, etc. Other transaction types and phases.15) SC242 Signals and other signals.16) Processor Developments. Various Processors. Detail of x84-64 Architecture17) Interface Buses. The PC, ISA, and