Principles of Computer Hardware

I am a Computer Science student at Tallinn University of Technology, and I bought this book for Computer hardware class. It is the main book that our Computer Hardware teacher uses in class. I used this book ( Principles of Computer Hardware, 4th edition) along with Tanenbaum's "Structured computer organization" and I have to say it is a perfect combination. I was amazed how easy to understand the information in this book was. It is not the simplicity of "for dummies" books, but somehow the author managed to explain complicated subjects in an easy to understand way. It is well structured and organized, the material is covered thoroughly (there were quite a few explanations that helped me understand what Tanenbaum meant in his book :-)), there are a lot of very easy to understand illustrations with comments that truly help in understanding the material. The complicated topics are clearly presented, so I REALLY enjoyed reading it. I have to say that I learned a lot from this book, and many topics became really clear to me after reading it. Well, of course, as in almost every book, there were a few misprints in the book, but I think these are not critical to understanding the material. I am so glad I bought this book. So if you are a Computer Science student or just want a book that would help you with your self-education in Computer Hardware, don't hesitate and buy this book. I'm giving it 5 stars !

I had to use this textbook for my college principles of computer hardware class, but I found myself reading it when I didn't even have to by the end of the semester. Some complex ideas are discussed in here, but the authors lay it out to the reader in a friendly and easy-to-grasp manner. On the downside, as the other reviewer mentioned, there are quite a few errors in the logic diagrams, Karnaugh maps, and truth tables presented in the book. Also, the chapter order can be somewhat unintuitive, although that may be a matter of personal preference. If you have to get this book for a class, consider yourself lucky-- and if you are just looking to learn by yourself about computer hardware from the ground up, this book is a great way to go.

This is the textbook used in a computer hardware class I have taken - its a good read and has some clear explanations and good illustrated examples of the ideas - found several errors and typos in the logic diagrams and am not sure if their outlined in a errata supplement. some of the technology seems to be a bit dated in the later chapters, but the ideas still hold.- Overall a good introductory text book.