Book Description
The Pentium Chronicles describes the architecture and key decisions that shaped the P6, Intel's most successful chip to date. As author Robert Colwell recognizes, success is about learning from others, and Chronicles is filled with stories of ordinary, exceptional people as well as frank assessments of "oops" moments, leaving you with a better understanding of what it takes to create and grow a winning product.
Customer Reviews:
Good advice and inside view..........2007-07-16
I thought of this book as a tome of helpful advice for any project manage that has to work on a project that veers far into the unknown. The author was the Chief Architect for the P6 (Pentium Pro) microprocessor. This was a radically new type of processor that broke from previous chip architectures. The team was required to explore untested ideas but at the same time bring them to an operable design. This required considerable balancing and deft handling of various stumbling blocks. The author presents a lot of observations on how to accomplish this. It was also very interesting, for a person who is interested in microprocessors, to see where exactly time is spent in these massive projects. The author gives lots of technical details, but I would have like a bit more. Of course, the intention of this book was as a project management guide, so that isn't necessarily bad.
thin.......2007-04-10
I was looking forward to a history of the depth of, say "Into the Black" about JPL by Peter Westwick, a professional historian. The Pentium Chronicles is thin. I think it's trying mostly to be a project management book. The context is poorly drawn, the technical issues are nearly completely unexplained, and the stories are told without zest. The sidebars make the book feel like it is meant to be bought at an airport and discarded to the next passenger. Colwell is undoubtedly a fine computer architect but his writing leaves a lot to be desired, at least in this book.
Project Management Education.......2007-03-06
This is an excellent case study about Intel's P6 project -- that became the Pentium Pro and part of the lineage for a number of other processors. The author provides the story of compromises made while the project proceded and the corporate politics endured at Intel. He also discusses the Pentium flaw episode and provides a technical rationale that thay may have led to that unrelated debacle. It is fun to read about some of the technical aspects of this project. One flaw to the story is the lack of additional information on why Intel settled out of court and paid millions of dollars for alleged patent infringement accusations relating to the P6 project. The book is surprisingly upbeat considering the author no longer works at Intel. If you like this book, Brian Bagnall's "On the Edge" about the rise and fall of Commodore computer is an excellent follow-up.
How a big project comes together........2006-03-20
On the first page of this book Dr. Colwell gets his marching orders from his boss: 'Your job is to beat the P5 chip by a factor of two on the same process technology. Any Questions.'
'Three,' he replied. 'What's a P5?' What's the process technology plans? Where's the bathroom.'
The P5 became the Pentium chip. The process technology doesn't matter in this book as it was the same. And he found the bathroom.
Dr. Colwell's new chip, the P6 came to the market first as the Pentium Pro, the same basic design was subsequently modified as the basic core for the Pentium II, Pentium III, Celeron, Xeon, and the current Centrino products.
But the details of the chip aren't the strong point of the book. It's the organization and structure of a how a big development team works. From the little details like finding an unused storage room to use as a conference room where the blackboards wouldn't get erased, to hiring, firing and getting the product out.
I can't help but compare this with Tracy Kidders book 'The Soul of a New Machine' written twenty or so years ago. Kidder was a better writer, but Colwell was the one in charge, making the whole thing happen. I would have liked to see a little more technical detail, but I've been in this business a long time and have more interests along these lines than the average reader. As it is, it is an excellent book on project management and I enjoyed it very much.
Solid, practical perspective.......2006-03-05
As may be likely with many readers, I first heard of Mr. Colwell from his IEEE Computer columns, of which I was big fan. Several times I was tempted to send him comments about the insights and occasional humor, but I never did. The same kind of writing and attitude is clearly on display in "Chronicles".
Because other reviewers mentioned "Soul of a New Machine," I agree that it is hard to escape, even though the two books are much different. When I was a young engineer in the early 80s, "Soul" was (and is) a great book. I did not have the experience to grasp some lessons to be learned from the story, and a 1980s version of "Chronicles" would not have hit home, either.
However, Mr. Colwell is completely believable in his anecdotes and in the presentation of the big picture, the project, and countless details both technical and personal. Experienced engineers will no doubt see themselves, their colleagues, and their projects in one form or another. I don't mean just the "Dilbert" moments and inevitable personal clashes, but also the serious business and technical challenges that any complex project must face. I found myself nodding in agreement again and again with his conclusions and advice.
Two reasons I liked Mr. Colwell's columns are that he is not just a techno-geek and that an interesting feisty personality showed through. You see that feistiness at times in the book with stories of taking on the powers that be, for better or worse, without feeling like you are listening to someone covering his tracks to make himself look good. The true engineer comes through, with enough polish to be around executives and to be allowed with customers.
Average customer rating:
- A Good Book, but it needs a bit editing
- Out of date
- Very detail oriented, complete and good reference
- Unhelpful and Scattered
- This Book is a must for Hardware Freaks
|
The Intel Microprocessors 8086/8088, 80186/80188, 80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium, and Pentium Pro Processor Architecture, Programming, and Inter- facing
Brey. Barry B. , and
Barry B. Brey
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
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Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers (4th Edition)
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ASIN: 0139954082 |
Book Description
Keeping users on the forefront of technology, this timely volume offers a practical reference to all programming and interfacing aspects of the popular Intel family of microprocessors. Organized in an orderly and manageable format that stimulates and challenges understanding, the book contains numerous example programs using the Microsoft Macro Assembler program, and provides a thorough description of each Intel family member, memory systems, and various I/O systems. The volume provides an introduction to the microprocessor and computer and explains addressing modes, data movement instructions, program control instructions, programming the microprocessor and using assembly language with C/C++. It also outlines 8086/8088 hardware specifications, memory interface, basic I/O interface and interrupts, and the latest Pentium microprocessors. For anyone wanting a thorough knowledge of programming and interfacing of the Intel family of microprocessors.
Customer Reviews:
A Good Book, but it needs a bit editing.......2004-12-28
It's a really Good Book, very thorough. But it lacks editing for the new revisions. There are quite a few chapters that concerns DOS only, and these days it would be hard to find a person that finds this interesting.
Those chapters could very well be exchanged for information on XP, Win 2003 or even Linux. And now I mentioned Linux: this OS is completely ignored in the text. When the author lists the 32 bit operating systems, he event counts Win95 and Win98, but excludes Linux and Unix!?
So: A very nice read that could have been better.
Out of date.......2004-03-08
Has a lot of good background, but if you are looking for in-depth information about the Pentium family, you should likely skip this book. The "Pentium and Pentium Pro" chapter starts page 753, "Pentium II, III and 4" starts page 783, and "Appendixes" star page 802, meaning 30 pages and 19 pages respectively on the last two Intel processor families.
Several references in the book state things like "just introduced" or "this year", but were obviously from early editions.
I recognize how hard it is to keep up to date - The current (as of this writing) architecture documents from Intel on IA-32e and AMD for AMD64 are several thousands of pages and free for download. Of course, I never expected 64 bit architecture discussion in this book, but but I was looking for a narrative that would set the base and context of modern 32 bit implementations.
Very detail oriented, complete and good reference.......2002-08-24
I have read the first 140 pages of this book, and I really like it. So far, I have the following comments.
Good points:
1.) It covers both real and protected mode from the start. Other books wait until the middle of the books before they cover protected mode.
2.) Assembly language command mechanism are explained in great detail. The author explain exactly what's going on. How the data moved from memory to register, register to register, how the memory in a computer is organized, how exactly PUSH and POP command works etc. There are lots of diagram that illustrate his explanations.
3.) It covers from 8086 to Pentium II hardware architecture. Many books are strictly limited to outdated 8086 and 8088 processors.
4.) The exercises at the end of each chapter increases my understanding of the subject and answers to even numbered problems are available at the end of the book.
Bad Points:
1.)Assembly language and processor architecture are hard subjects. You have to read each chapter several times before you can get a good grasp of the topic.
2.)Some of the topic presented by the authors can not be easily understood until you read the subsequent chapters.
One suggestion for people who read the book: Make sure you know how to convert binary, hexadecimal and decimal number. You have to know these otherwise you can get lost. Some basic understanding of logic gates is also helpfull!
Unhelpful and Scattered.......2001-10-23
I'm currently studying Electronic Engineering, and this is our recommended text for the introduction to assembly module. I find i can't use the book as it does not lay out any subject clearly. Often parts of the language are used in examples then introduced and explained many pages later. If starting you have to get at least one other book.
This Book is a must for Hardware Freaks.......2001-06-11
My teacher used this book in our Electronics Engineering course few year back, it was some old edition. Since then I wanted to buy this book, but I couldn't find it in decent price. Few days back I bought it for US ... (lucky me). This book is really great for Assembly Programmers, Hardware Interfacing (with PCI, Local bus, AGP, LPT and USB), etc. It is also great for leaning Interfacing with other devices too, since it clearly describes some interfacing ICs. It is not suited for beginners.
Book Description
Pentium(R) Pro and Pentium(R) II System Architecture, Second Edition, details the internal architecture of these two processors, describing their hardware and software characteristics, the bus protocol they use to communicate with the system, and the overall machine architecture. It also describes the BIOS Update Feature. Written for computer hardware and software engineers, this book offers insight into how the Pentium Pro and Pentium II family of processors translates legacy x86 code into RISC instructions, executes them out-of-order, and then reassembles the result to match the original program flow. In detailing the Pentium Pro and Pentium II processors' internal operations, the book reveals why the processors generate various transaction types and how they monitor bus traffic generated by other entities to ensure cache consistency.
This new edition includes comprehensive coverage of the Pentium II processor. It highlights the differences between the Pentium Pro and Pentium II processors, in particular, the Slot 1 connector and the processor cartridge design utilized by the Pentium II and intended for use in future Intel processors. It features the Pentium II's support for the MMX instruction set and registers, and shows how it is optimized for 16-bit code execution. This book also describes the Pentium II's L2 cache and its support for power-conservation modes.
Pentium(R) Pro and Pentium(R) II System Architecture, Second Edition, also covers: the relationship of Pentium Pro and Pentium II processors to other processors, PCI bridges, caches, and memory detailed descriptions of the data, code, and L2 caches power-on configuration and processor startup transaction deferral instruction, register set, paging, and interrupt enhancements to the Pentium Pro and Pentium II BIOS Update Feature Machine Check Architecture performance monitoring and the Time Stamp Counter MMX register and instruction set supported by the Pentium II overview of the Intel 450KX, 450GX, and 440FX chipsets
The PC System Architecture Series is a crisply written and comprehensive set of guides to the most important PC hardware standards. Each title is designed to illustrate the relationship between the software and hardware and explains thoroughly the architecture, features, and operations of systems built using one particular type of chip or hardware specification.
Customer Reviews:
An absolut must-have!.......2000-11-04
This is the must-have book for all those people who wants to learn the architecture of Intel's 6th generation processors, wich is used by Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium II Xeon, Pentium III Xeon and Celeron processors. In its 590 pages you will learn all about the internal working, memory cache architecture, symetric multiprocessing and much more! This is one of my favorite technical books.
young.......1999-11-16
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Book Description
The Unabridged Pentium 4 offers unparalleled coverage of Intel's IA32 family of processors, from the 386 through the Pentium 4 and Pentium M processors. Unlike other texts, which address solely a hardware or software audience, this book serves as a comprehensive technical reference for both audiences. Inside, the Mindshare trainers cover not only the hardware design and software enhancements of Intel's latest processors, they also explain the relationship between these hardware and software characteristics.
As a result, readers will come away with a complete understanding of the processor's internal architecture, the Front Side Bus (FSB), the processor's relationship to the system, and the processor's software architecture.
Essential topics covered include:
Goals of single-task and multi-task operating systems
The 386 processor—the baseline ancestor of the IA32 processor family
The 486 processor, including a cache primer
The Pentium processor
The P6 roadmap, P6 processor core, and P6 FSB
The Pentium Pro processor, including the Microcode Update feature
Pentium II and the Pentium II Xeon processors
Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon processors
The Pentium 4 processor family
The Pentium M processor
Processor identification, System Management Mode, and the IO and Local APICs
An "at-a-glance" table of contents allows readers to quickly find topics ranging from 386 Demand Mode Paging to Pentium 4 CPU Arbitration. An accompanying CD-ROM contains additional book material.
Whether you design software or hardware or are responsible for system maintenance or customer support, The Unabridged Pentium 4 will prove an invaluable reference to the world's most widely used microprocessor chips.
Customer Reviews:
Value depends on accepting the book's purpose.......2004-12-29
Page 1 of 'The Unabridged Pentium 4' (TUP4) claims 'there is real value in understanding how the architecture has grown over the years,' where the 'architecture' is the IA-32 register set, instruction set, and software exceptions. If you accept this premise, you will find TUP4 to be a valuable book. If you are looking for detail on the lowest-level of programming on IA-32, you should download Intel's free IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer s Manual.
Readers looking for information on IA-32 architecture can first turn to three free books Intel provides in .pdf format: Volume 1: Basic Architecture (448 pp); Volumes 2A (580 pp) & 2B (416 pp): Instruction Set Reference; and Volume 3: System Programming Guide (838 pp), for a total of 2282 pp. Volume 1 describes the basic architecture and programming environment of an IA-32 processor. Volumes 2A & 2B are aimed at application programmers and describe the instruction set of the processor and the opcode structure. Volume 3, for OS engineers and BIOS designers, describes the OS support environment of an IA-32 processor and IA-32 processor compatibility information.
TUP4 differs from these volumes in that TUP4 describes Intel processors from a historical and evolutionary standpoint. Although TUP4 has 'Pentium 4' in its title, it begins with the 386 CPU and even makes comparison to 286 and prior CPUs. TUP4 'builds' the P4 by beginning with the 386 and adding features over time. I found this approach helpful to explain why Intel has ended up with the architecture in the P4.
The book's descriptions tend to be thorough and detailed. For example, there are explanations of the state of every element of a CPU upon a system reset, bit-oriented descriptions of registers and memory structures, and electrical characteristics of components like the Front Side Bus.
TUP4 is also interesting because the author is not an Intel employee. This leaves him free to mention items like the fact that the original (and presumably existing) Pentium M CPU is based on the PIII core, and not the newer P4.
Reader should not ignore the additional 342 pages found on the book's CD-ROM. I found the first three chapters most interesting, as they describe processor problems and solutions (ch 1), register (ch 2) and instruction set (ch 3) evolution; the remainder covers aspects of the P6 core.
I have a few concerns with TUP4. First, the quality of most of the figures and diagrams needs to be improved. While legible, they look like they were pulled from slides used in the author's classes, and did not survive publication at high resolution. Second, I think the book could have been thinner. While not exactly a 'large font' book, I saw too much white space and repetition of material. The book had 89 pages (lxxxix) of introduction to handle the table of contents, etc! Third and most importantly, I did not get enough of an introduction to certain CPU concepts and elements. In a 1600+ page book, I would have put more tables and similar references on the CD-ROM, and more basic CPU hardware explanation in the text.
While I am not technically proficient enough in CPU design to critique the book's content, I found one remark odd. On p 209 the author states that a hypothetical system with 256 MB RAM would be 'ridiculously small,' and that it would be 'amazing' if an OS would occupy 250 MB or memory or less. Most consumer PCs ship with 128 MB RAM (admittedly too little in my opinion), so 256 MB is a good standard for modern Windows systems. I am not sure why the author selected his figures, for they do not seem representative of modern computing.
Overall, I strongly recommend anyone wanting to learn more about the IA-32 architecture first download and peruse Intel's three volumes. I am fairly sure those documents will answer your questions. If you want a more comparative discussion, with the 386, 486, Pentium, and later processors explained, give TUP4 a look. For future editions, I would pare the book down by moving more reference material to the CD-ROM, and call the book 'Abridged.'
Possibly a definitive manual of the P4?.......2004-09-24
Well should the title say Unabridged. It would not go nicely for you to drop this 1633 page tome on your feet!
The book is aimed squarely at a traditional electrical engineering hardware person. Who hopefully already has extensive experience in designing a chipset or motherboard around a microprocessor. Where, needless to say, it would be even more advantageous if that cpu was an earlier Pentium or x86.
A lot of familiar type material here. The details are specific to this latest cpu, of course. But you should been well conversant with state transition diagrams for various pins on a chip, as functions of input signals on other pins. The book also has many details like setup and hold time requirements for how long a signal must be stable at a pin, relative to some other parameter, like the edge of a clock cycle. These ideas have been around for decades. So it is nice that what you might have learnt in the 70s and 80s are still applicable here, albeit at much higher clock speeds.
The book is a reference manual, in case you haven't figured that out already. I cannot imagine someone reading this cover to cover. It also shows that the company, Mindshare, that authored the book (and similar others), has chosen to reside in a very specialised niche. Where the sheer complexity may deter competition.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book That Explains The New Features in The Pentium CPU.......2005-04-22
The most useful information that I found in this book is the clear explanation of the new features of Pentium processor that are not found in earlier 8086 to 80486 processors. Several chapters are dedicated to the Pentium Data and Instruction Cache Memory Architecture for both system with single and multiple processors. Note that this book is not for a beginner. If you don't know anything about Cache Memory architecture from earlier Intel CPU then this book is not for you. The earlier books in Mindshare PC System Architecture Series which are ISA System Architecture, EISA System Architecture and 80486 System Architecture should give sufficent background to read this book.
Average customer rating:
- Good, but far too many errors
- Useful but not detailed enough.
|
Intel Microprocessors 8086/8088, 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486, The: Architecture, Programming, and Interfacing
Barry B. Brey
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0132606704 |
Customer Reviews:
Good, but far too many errors.......1999-01-29
The books contents and structure is very good. Unfortunately, there is ( even in the 4.edition ) far too many errors in figures and diagrams.
Useful but not detailed enough........1998-04-15
I have found this book a usefull guide for the high level assembly programer. Unfortunantly, it
does not give enough detail for low level programing. It would be better if appendix B was more informative.
Book Description
KEY BENEFIT: Updated and current, this book provides a comprehensive view of programming and interfacing of the Intel family of microprocessors from the 8088 through the latest Pentium 4 microprocessor.
KEY TOPICS: Organized in an orderly and manageable format, it offers over 200 programming examples using the Microsoft Macro Assembler program, and provides a thorough description of each Intel family members, memory systems, and various I/O systems.
MARKET: For Electronic engineering specialist, programmers, computer scientists, or electrical engineers.
Customer Reviews:
Toxic!!.......2005-06-27
WARNING - do not handle this book. absolutely the most boring, hard to follow textbook ever. It is more of a technical manual than anything else.
Average customer rating:
- It has historical value more than anything else...
- Excellent Introduction to Code Optimization
- Best book I found on the subject...
- Suberb Book, Second Edition Please!
- The best book of how to optimize performance of Pentium PCs
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Inner Loops: A Sourcebook for Fast 32-bit Software Development
Rick Booth
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
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Code Optimization: Effective Memory Usage
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ASIN: 0201479605 |
Customer Reviews:
It has historical value more than anything else..........2007-06-06
This book is divided in 2. The first part describes the theory of assembler optimization for processors from the 486 to the Pentium Pro. 10 years ago, this information was useful but now it is pretty much deprecated as I highly doubt that Pentium optimization techniques do anything good on Athlons or Pentium IV processors. The only chapter that still contains applicable information today is the one providing general advices on optimization such as loop unrolling.
Then the second part named 'Practice' provides concrete examples of assembly optimizations for various problems such as sorting, list and tree traversals. I do not like this section neither because I feel that the presented assembly procedures are thrown at you in the face without showing you the process that the author used to derive them from the original C code. Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book (Special Edition) does a much better job in that area by presenting you 5 versions or more of the same procedure starting from the C version that gets optimized further at each iteration. Also, someone might expect to be able to get the source from the CD-ROM coming with the book and start directly using it. Alas, it is not possible because what the presented code is sorting or searching in binary trees are integers that are directly manipulated in the registers (that is part of the presented optimizations) which has not much reuse value in a world of STL containers holding usually much more complex objects or structures than plain integers. The only value that these examples might have is that they might give you some ideas on where assembly optimization might be applied.
10 years ago, this book would have received a 4 out of 5 stars review but because it is pretty much deprecated except very few pages I am giving it a 2. As I said, a much better book to learn the process of optimizing in assembly is Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book (Special Edition) because it walks you through the optimization process step by step with more than 5 versions of the same procedure that is getting more optimized at each iteration. You will learn how to do it yourself with this book even if it suffers of the same weakness than this book. That is: it presents optimization techniques from the 8088 (that is very very old up!!!) to the Pentium Pro. Another benefit from Abrash book is that, in my opinion, there is a greater chance that you might find its code reusable.
Finally, a very good optimization book that covers optimization techniques for recent processors such as the Athlon and the Pentium IV is: Code Optimization: Effective Memory Usage.
Excellent Introduction to Code Optimization.......2002-08-30
For those who have never before had to worry about source code performance optimization, this is the first book you want to read. It will introduce you to basic, common techniques for performance optimization of your source code.
The text is programming language independent and can be easily understood by anyone who has taken a basic programming course (which I hope you have done by now, because you can't optimize code if you can't even program it).
I gave this introductory text three stars because it is just that, an introductory text. If you want advanced performance optimizations -- I'm programming an operating system or compiler kind of depth -- then look elsewhere.
Best book I found on the subject..........2002-06-19
The book is starting to be outdated but I did not find a better book on the subject. Teaches a few assembly tricks to help you get a bit of performance. At least it covers Pentium (only Pentium I and Pentium Pro though). When is the second edition coming out? Unless you are already an advanced assembly programmer, you will learn something in this book.
Suberb Book, Second Edition Please!.......2001-03-21
There are so many computer books that have second editions which add little to the original text. This book deserves a second edition by covering;
MMX (when this book was written only the MMX spec from Intel was available, so the author does his best)
SSE & 3DNow! & SSE2 Instructions (SIMD FPU rogramming)
PII, PIII, & Athlon coverage
Encoding / Decoding of Audio and Video Streams
The best book of how to optimize performance of Pentium PCs.......2000-10-13
This is the best book I know of when it comes to learning how to optimize code for maximum performance on an Intel Pentium, Pentium MMX, Pentium Pro, or Pentium II processor. It is also great for learning about how the processors work. Rick gives a very easy to understand explanation of several advanced concepts such as branch prediction, stalls, address generation interlocks, L1 and L2 caches, and instruction pairing. Every little idiosyncrasy and quirk of the Pentium that may slow down your code is explained so that that you can avoid them all. In many cases, Rick gives you a lot more information than any of official Intel documentation. He also corrects several of Intel's timing charts that do not accurately reflect the real world performance of the Pentium processor. Most of this information is understandable and useful even if you program in C or C++. In other words, you don't have to be writing in assembly language to be concerned about branch prediction, cache lines and the other topics covered in the book. This book is a must have for anyone writing performance code on an Pentium processor and recommended to anyone curious about how the Pentium processor works from a software perspective.
Book Description
Assembly language continues to hold a core position in the programming world because of its similar structure to machine language and its very close links to underlying computer-processor architecture and design. These features allow for high processing speed, low memory demands, and the capacity to act directly on the system's hardware. This completely revised second edition of the highly successful Introduction to Assembly Language Programming introduces the reader to assembly language programming and its role in computer programming and design. The focus is on providing readers with a firm grasp of the main features of assembly programming, and how it can be used to improve a computer's performance. The revised edition covers a broad scope of subjects and adds valuable material on protected-mode Pentium programming, MIPS assembly language programming, and use of the NASM and SPIM assemblers for a Linux orientation. All of the language's main features are covered in depth. The book requires only some basic experience with a structured, high-level language.
Topics and Features: Introduces assembly language so that readers can benefit from learning its utility with both CISC and RISC processors [ NEW ].- Employs the freely available NASM assembler, which works with both Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems [ NEW ].- Contains a revised chapter on "Basic Computer Organization" [ NEW].- Uses numerous examples, hands-on exercises, programming code analyses and challenges, and chapter summaries.- Incorporates full new chapters on recursion, protected-mode interrupt processing, and floating-point instructions [ NEW ].
Assembly language programming is part of several undergraduate curricula in computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering. In addition, this newly revised text/reference can be used as an ideal companion resource in a computer organization course or as a resource for professional courses.
Customer Reviews:
good skill to cultivate, for any programmer.......2006-05-22
The Pentium chip dominates the desktop, and this book reflects that. It teaches you the ideas in assembly programming, with a clear emphasis on doing so for the Pentium.
Dandamudi also provides a concise summary of the history of the Pentium, going way back to the 8085 and 8080, around 1982. From these sprang the x86 family. All the way to the 486. But AMD's pesky nipping at the heels caused Intel to lose copyright to "586"; from which Pentium was chosen as the new copyrightable label. Alas, Intel never pushed "Sextium" but instead used "Pentium Pro".
The book has copious examples of assembly code. These are extensively documented inline, to an extent that you will rarely see in most real code. The pedagogy should be clear to most readers. Who are also encouraged to try the problems provided in each chapter. Assembly programming is very different from coding in a higher language like C or Java, and it is a worthy skill to cultivate. And one that is independent of the actual processor family that you code in. If nothing else, the text gives you an underlying qualitative understanding of how higher languages are ultimately expressed in binary executables.
I suppose I should say that there is also some coverage of alternative chip families in the book. Notably some RISC processors. These form a conceptually distinct approach to designing a microprocessor.
Great book on Assembly Language.......2005-02-26
Previously the books on Assembly I have read have been either 100 percent Intel syntax or have been based on DOS Debug, which is pretty antiquated. Reading this book introduced a number of new concepts and was for the most part an enjoyable read. First thing though, this book is designed as a textbook. While the book does cover the basic syntax in Assembly, I feel that it would be a difficult to read for a beginner who has not at least wet their feet in some form of assembly. It is definitely meant to be a book used in a classroom with an experienced facilitator covering the material. Being that it is a textbook, it does have nice exercises at the end of each chapter, if you can get passed the mental block of doing "homework", which are very helpful in understanding the material. The content of the book is very good. A detailed explanation of the different memory models used in the x86-programming model was very informative. I unfortunately did not get passed the Pentium processor programming, but I look forward to going over the MIPS processor when I get a chance and something to develop on.
Average customer rating:
- Very good book for the novice....
- Author Gives His Own Book 5 Stars ?!?
- History and intent
- Since when do authors get to rank their own books?
- Build Your Own Pentium III PC
|
Build Your Own Pentium III PC
Aubrey Pilgrim
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0071352015 |
Book Description
Build your own Pentium III PC and save a bundle! Why pay big bucks for a Pentium III system when legendary build-it-yourself guru Aubrey Pilgrim can help you construct one at home for a fraction of dealer prices? In Build Your Own Pentium III PC he gives you top-to-bottom, fully-illustrated instructions for assembling your own customized Pentium III powerhouse ¿ from selecting components to installing software. You get detailed, step-by-step assembly and installation instructions for mother boards, floppy drives, hard disks, memory modules, scanners, modems, CD-ROM and DVD drives, sound boards and more. Plus you¿ll find handy comparisons of the latest generation of chips ¿ including those from Intel plus the latest low-cost rockets from AMD and others ¿ along with all the tips and techniques you need to create, test and troubleshoot a sizzling state-of-the-art system. You don¿t need a technical degree or special tools. Just follow these simple guidelines and procedures and save hundreds in the process!
Download Description
From a respected author, the first and best do-it-yourself guide for everyone interested in creating a fast Pentium III computer at the lowest price.
Customer Reviews:
Very good book for the novice...........2001-04-05
I was a complete, absolute novice knowing nothing at all about PCs. This book is not just about instructions on how to make your own PC. It gives really important history and background information which is absolutely vital and fundamental to any novice trying to get a good grasp of the subject. By the time it came down to actually building my own PC, I had as good a grasp of the subject at this level as the author himself without having read any other book on the subject. It gives you all the information YOU need to be able to make your OWN judgement about what YOU WANT to build. Best of all, the author has written it in such a personal fashion that you will feel he is actually talking to you and you can imagine him working away in his garage - enabling you to see and appreciate things in a crystal clear way. It left me absolutely mesmerised. Every technical book is only valid for as long as the technology mentioned in it is also valid when you read it. Since computer technology moves really, really fast, the reader should consider some information that was current when the book was written to look at it from a historical point of view - this does not negate the validity of the information in any way. The author makes this fact clear by mentioning phrases like "By the time you read this...." followed by his comments about how things might have changed when you are reading the book at your time - and quite often he is spot on about his predictions, which I am sure needed a bit of digging. The flow of his language is wonderful and I feel sorry for those who criticise it because their first language isn't English - mine isn't either. The only matter you should be careful of is when you read about binary numbers but thats really to do with software at a core level - something that really did not concern me at this level. I have now made 2 PCs, connected to a third, made my own network, and studying MCSE to change my career. Congratulations on a book well conceived, thought out, planned, executed and written!!!!!
Author Gives His Own Book 5 Stars ?!?.......2001-01-26
The book itself is so-so; it has some good information in it, nothing great, and you will certainly need to consult other sources, in print or on the Web, or get help from an expert, before you're able to build a fully functional computer.........
History and intent.......2000-11-24
I have grown up with the author's books, on building a PC. Considering that from 386/486 there was not much around. I have still his 486, Pent II, when I get around to it get his Pent III.
I gave my son his earlier works to get started, and with a 2 week "intern" in a PC shop, he is now proudly showing me stuff. Granted his books are for the beginner/intermediate but there is just not many books out there who even attempt this. By the time they get printed, we see the next generation pent IV/giga herz which I hope the author deems to do that as well. Based on his start with some hands on and books like this and starting college he now can understand what is going on. In fact he was looking at Aubrey's Pent II book, so I will put the printout rating for Aubrey's Pent III book out, and hope there will be a similiar book on Pent IIII/AMD gigahertz forthcoming including the new memory, getting harddrives that are now 40-60 gigs.
His pent II book was discussing sub 10 gig drives. Anyway keep up the great work. Perhaps I will get a copy of the pent III and let my sone review it, since he is now overclocking his pent III putting cooling fans everywhere. Carey
Since when do authors get to rank their own books?.......2000-09-23
This book was a major disappointment, but I can only blame myself for this. I looked at the star ranking, but didn't read the reviews. I should have, because it would have helped me much better after reading the reviews. I am somewhat savy, but I was disappointed by this book because it didn't talk to me on a level of what type of product (or brands) would be best for me depending on my budget. For example, besides price, what makes the difference in components I pick? Is it speed? Will they work better? Some products that I buy might not work better if I buy the wrong companion component... this book didn't tell me that.
His writing leaves much to be desired. I should have never strayed from Upgrading and Repairing PC's by Scott Mueller. I just bought ISBN 0789723034 and it's great.
Who does the author think he is giving his 1-star book 5 stars?
Build Your Own Pentium III PC.......2000-06-21
As with most of the "build your own" books on the market, this one is pretty out of date. Also, the book supplies you with very little information which would help you select which components will best meet your needs and which components work best together (ie- which motherboards, video graphics boards ...). Basically this book just explains in very breif detail how the system all works together.
The most difficult thing in building your own system IMHO is deciding which components will best meet your needs and will work well together. I did not get any helpful info from this book along these lines. In fact the author does not even seem particularly knowledgeable about the subject matter in the book. I think I could have wrote a better book and I do not even consider myself a computer geek.
Bottom line, I waisted my money...
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