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clockworkvk's review against another edition
5.0
This book takes you all the way from a simple electric circuit operating a lightbulb to the workings of a computer processor, in a clear and accessible manner.
An absolute must for anyone who wants to have a good basic understanding of the inner workings of digital technology.
An absolute must for anyone who wants to have a good basic understanding of the inner workings of digital technology.
tuxhedoh's review against another edition
I'm going to try to get through this book again.
gracetue's review against another edition
3.0
Took me literal months and there were entire chapters that were nearly incomprehensible to me...but I finished!!!
sushirito89's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting history, a lot went over my head. A little dated (came out in 1999).
bigfreakbaby's review against another edition
5.0
Basically a better version of my computer architecture class from undergrad… extremely thorough, easy to understand, a great resource for everyone interested, imo. Not exactly a breeze to read through any technical book, but this was still pretty good. Learned half way through that it came out in 2000ish so it was also a cool artifact to see what the author mentioned about modern computing and predicted for the future. Additionally learned that the author wrote the OG programming windows book and is a total legend. Very cool
lotuseater96's review against another edition
Got too indepth with memory and code for afr too many continuous chapters
skyring's review against another edition
5.0
I wasn't quite sure what to expect in this book. Codes, I suppose, and though we start off with Morse and Braille, they are only used as illuminated stepping stones into the meat of the book, which is a look at how computers work, based on their innards.
I wish I'd had this book twenty years ago. Or thirty, for that matter, when I first began playing around with CP/M and TRS-DOS and things. The Altair wasn't ancient history then and the computer magazines advertised wire-wrapping tools. A fun way to spend an afternoon was to go into a computer shop, write a simple program to POKE a random byte into a random memory address and GOTO 10. Strange magicks would happen!
This book explains machine language and assembler, the switches on the Altair, the workings of memory. Nothing is left out and everything is diagrammed to make it crystal clear.
Apple was on the way out when this was written, but the tide has turned in many ways. As it has so often in the computer world. But, under the hood, they all pretty much work the same.
Highly recommended to anyone who likes finding out how stuff works, and how to count to a thousand or so on your fingers.
I wish I'd had this book twenty years ago. Or thirty, for that matter, when I first began playing around with CP/M and TRS-DOS and things. The Altair wasn't ancient history then and the computer magazines advertised wire-wrapping tools. A fun way to spend an afternoon was to go into a computer shop, write a simple program to POKE a random byte into a random memory address and GOTO 10. Strange magicks would happen!
This book explains machine language and assembler, the switches on the Altair, the workings of memory. Nothing is left out and everything is diagrammed to make it crystal clear.
Apple was on the way out when this was written, but the tide has turned in many ways. As it has so often in the computer world. But, under the hood, they all pretty much work the same.
Highly recommended to anyone who likes finding out how stuff works, and how to count to a thousand or so on your fingers.