Book details of 'The Indispensable PC Hardware Book: Your Hardware Questions Answered (3rd Edition)'

Title	The Indispensable PC Hardware Book: Your Hardware Questions Answered (3rd Edition)
Author(s)	Hans-Peter Messmer
ISBN	0201403994
Language	English
Published	June 1999
Publisher	Addison-Wesley Pub Co

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'The Indispensable PC Hardware Book: Your Hardware Questions Answered (3rd Edition)':

Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
I'm not sure about indispensable, but it certainly is exhaustive. The fact that it is over a thousand pages gives you only an indication, until you see the tiny type size used here. This is not a shopper's guide to the normal level of components. You get all the facts, it is true, but it is mostly at the level of pinouts and timing diagrams. This is for programmers and hardware hackers at the circuit board level and below. An introductory chapter at a very easy and readable level leads into details of the motherboard and various component chips. Topcis covered include Intel microprocessors, logical and physical memory addressing, logic gates and microprogramming, math coprocessors, derivative processors, cache, Intel "clone" processors, PC architectures and bus systems, AT architecture, EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture), Microchannel, PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), VESA Local Bus, hardware interrupts and interrupt controller, 825x timer, Direct Memory Access (DMA), floppy drives, hard drives, peripheral interfaces, local area network adapters, keyboards and mice, graphics adapters, and multimedia. A number of appendices bring together related information, including various listings of interrupt calls. Given the broad scope of the book, I found some of the "missing" information to be odd. There is a listing of the machine instructions for the 80x86 processors--but only the mnemonics, without the actual opcodes or basic descriptions. The serial ports and UARTs are described thoroughly as to pinouts, but the onerous task of ensuring against address and IRQ conflicts is not discussed. The author insists that even beginners could read this book--and he has every right to do so. If you are interested in the hardware at this level, the explanations are clear and well sequenced. For anyone curious about any of the low level operations of the computer this is a very thorough resource. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994
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Book description:

Now fully up to date and even more comprehensive than before, this latest edition of The Indispensable PC Hardware Book will continue to amaze and delight with its detailed explanation of every aspect of PC hardware. Whether you're a newcomer to the field or a veteran systems programmer you'll relish the very latest scoop on hot topics including Pentium Pro, the PCI Chipset and SCSI III. Key Features include: detailed explanations of core hardware topics (including all CPUs, 8086/88 to Pentium and Pentium Pro; all co-processors, 8087 to i387; AMD processors, Am386 to AM5k86, Cyrix CPUs:386 to 6x86; real, protected and virtual 8086 mode with Pentium enhancements; addressing, segmentation and paging; extended and expanded memory; ports, registers and I/O address space; BIOS and register programming; ST412/506, AT-Bus, IDE, DI, SCSI I/II/III; interrupts, exceptions and NMI; RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memories; page mode, static, statics column mode, serial mode, memory interleaving), as well as unique coverage of upgrades and clones, overdrives and Sls; PC architectures from XT via ISA, EISA, MCA to VLB and PCI; Mass storage and interfaces; parallel, serial and PCMCIA; multimedia, concepts and programming of sound cards; and extensive appendices to provide you with a lasting programming reference.