Re: Slightly OT: Computer internals book recommendations

[Noel Chiappa via cctalk]

> From: Eric Christopherson

> I have an inside scoop that a certain library is about to get rid of
> their 2003 printing (which is apparently 1st edition)

ABE seems to have copies for around US$10:

  
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?bi=0=on_sp=SearchF-_-Advtab1-_-Results=30=all=17=t=Computer+Systems%3A+A+Programmers+Perspective

Noel

Re: Slightly OT: Computer internals book recommendations

[Eric Christopherson via cctalk]

Huw Davies wrote:

> Sounds like either
>
> Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach by David Patterson and John
> Hennessy
>
> Computer Organization and Design: the Hardware/Software Interface by David
> Patterson and John Hennessy
>
> I see there’s a MIPS edition of the second book. My copy of the second
book
> has Hennessy as the first author.

Thanks. I had the Hennessy/Patterson books on my radar but wasn't sure they
would meet the criteria (haven't been able to find previews of them).

Sophie Haskins wrote:

> I want to say that earlier editions of “Computer Systems: A Programmers
> Perspective” had a bunch of discussions of buses etc in addition to
> assembly, compilers, linking, etc. but the edition I have explicitly calls
> out that they felt like it wasn’t important to have chapters on anymore :(

Sophie also wrote:

> I have the second edition (there appears to now be a third out!) but
> re-reading the preface and "what's changed since the first edition"
doesn't
> seem to say what I remembered re: buses (namely, it says nothing at all).
> It is possibly my professors were referring to a much earlier
> course/textbook (or that I dreamed the whole thing!). CS: APP is still a
> pretty useful book, but...not on this topic, it would seem.
>
> (in the second edition, the only reference to buses is on a page where
they
> note that as of its publishing, buses are much more complicated and much
> less exposed to programmers than they once were)

I have an inside scoop that a certain library is about to get rid of their
2003 printing (which is apparently 1st edition); I've had my eye on it for
a while. It doesn't really go into any detail on buses, but still looks
really useful.

-- 
Eric Christopherson

Re: Slightly OT: Computer internals book recommendations

[ben via cctalk]

On 11/19/2017 12:29 AM, Huw Davies via cctalk wrote:




On 19 Nov 2017, at 10:57, Eric Christopherson via cctalk 
 wrote:

Basically, I'm looking for a certain book (although really any book in
the same vein would satisfy), which was on computer system architecture,
organization, etc.; it talked about the usual boolean logic, assembly
programming in some fictitious instruction set, an overview of two
actual architectures (I think at that time they were 32-bit x86 and
64-bit POWER). The other thing I remember very specifically was there
was a place near the back (probably an appendix) that talked about
one or more specific buses (I think at least PCI was there), with timing
diagrams to tell you what was actually going back and forth between the
bus and CPU.



Sounds like either

Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach by David Patterson and John 
Hennessy

Computer Organization and Design: the Hardware/Software Interface by David 
Patterson and John Hennessy

I see there’s a MIPS edition of the second book. My copy of the second book has 
Hennessy as the first author.

Time for a re-read - it’s been a while since I read both of them.

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green"


Is the first editon of the second book not MIPS? I want to read a book 
on stuff when the book was written, not the latest FAD or current 
marketing GIMMIC.

Ben.

Re: Slightly OT: Computer internals book recommendations

[Sophie Haskins via cctalk]

I have the second edition (there appears to now be a third out!) but
re-reading the preface and "what's changed since the first edition" doesn't
seem to say what I remembered re: buses (namely, it says nothing at all).
It is possibly my professors were referring to a much earlier
course/textbook (or that I dreamed the whole thing!). CS: APP is still a
pretty useful book, but...not on this topic, it would seem.

(in the second edition, the only reference to buses is on a page where they
note that as of its publishing, buses are much more complicated and much
less exposed to programmers than they once were)

- Sophie

On Sun, Nov 19, 2017 at 1:10 PM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> > From: Sophie Haskins
>
> > earlier editions of "Computer Systems: A Programmers Perspective"
> had a
> > bunch of discussions of buses etc .. but the edition I have
> explicitly
> > calls out that they felt like it wasn't important to have chapters on
> > anymore :(
>
> Well, that might not be the wrong call, _iff_ keeping them in would have
> increase the cost of the text-book for (poor) student...
>
> And for the rest of us, there's ABE for the earlier editions! :-) Which
> edition do you have, may I ask? Thanks!
>
> Noel
>

Re: Slightly OT: Computer internals book recommendations

[Noel Chiappa via cctalk]

> From: Sophie Haskins

> earlier editions of "Computer Systems: A Programmers Perspective" had a
> bunch of discussions of buses etc .. but the edition I have explicitly
> calls out that they felt like it wasn't important to have chapters on
> anymore :(

Well, that might not be the wrong call, _iff_ keeping them in would have
increase the cost of the text-book for (poor) student...

And for the rest of us, there's ABE for the earlier editions! :-) Which
edition do you have, may I ask? Thanks!

Noel

Re: Slightly OT: Computer internals book recommendations

[Sophie Haskins via cctalk]

I want to say that earlier editions of “Computer Systems: A Programmers 
Perspective” had a bunch of discussions of buses etc in addition to assembly, 
compilers, linking, etc. but the edition I have explicitly calls out that they 
felt like it wasn’t important to have chapters on anymore :(

> On Nov 19, 2017, at 2:29 AM, Huw Davies via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On 19 Nov 2017, at 10:57, Eric Christopherson via cctalk 
>>  wrote:
>> 
>> Basically, I'm looking for a certain book (although really any book in
>> the same vein would satisfy), which was on computer system architecture,
>> organization, etc.; it talked about the usual boolean logic, assembly
>> programming in some fictitious instruction set, an overview of two
>> actual architectures (I think at that time they were 32-bit x86 and
>> 64-bit POWER). The other thing I remember very specifically was there
>> was a place near the back (probably an appendix) that talked about
>> one or more specific buses (I think at least PCI was there), with timing
>> diagrams to tell you what was actually going back and forth between the
>> bus and CPU.
>> 
> 
> Sounds like either 
> 
> Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach by David Patterson and John 
> Hennessy
> 
> Computer Organization and Design: the Hardware/Software Interface by David 
> Patterson and John Hennessy
> 
> I see there’s a MIPS edition of the second book. My copy of the second book 
> has Hennessy as the first author.
> 
> Time for a re-read - it’s been a while since I read both of them.
> 
> Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
> Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
> Australia| air, the sky would be painted green" 
> 

Re: Slightly OT: Computer internals book recommendations

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 19 Nov 2017, at 10:57, Eric Christopherson via cctalk 
>  wrote:
> 
> Basically, I'm looking for a certain book (although really any book in
> the same vein would satisfy), which was on computer system architecture,
> organization, etc.; it talked about the usual boolean logic, assembly
> programming in some fictitious instruction set, an overview of two
> actual architectures (I think at that time they were 32-bit x86 and
> 64-bit POWER). The other thing I remember very specifically was there
> was a place near the back (probably an appendix) that talked about
> one or more specific buses (I think at least PCI was there), with timing
> diagrams to tell you what was actually going back and forth between the
> bus and CPU.
> 

Sounds like either 

Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach by David Patterson and John 
Hennessy

Computer Organization and Design: the Hardware/Software Interface by David 
Patterson and John Hennessy

I see there’s a MIPS edition of the second book. My copy of the second book has 
Hennessy as the first author.

Time for a re-read - it’s been a while since I read both of them.

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green"