Essentials of Computer Organization and Architecture

This textbook is filled to the brim with useful information; I had to read the book a second time to truly nail down some of the topics. One highlight is how, at the end of every chapter, the authors have an amazing further reading section that goes above and beyond the norm. Instead of listing references and more advanced books, the authors essentially spend the page telling you what each book’s specific purpose is and why it could be useful. I wish more textbooks did this.That being said, the book has so many simple errors in it hurts the authors’ credibility and makes the entire thing seem unprofessional. When reading a textbook as someone completely new to the subject matter, you need to be able to completely trust the material.

Got this book for my computer organization course. Lots of good information in the book; however, it was riddled with typos when providing examples for many concepts. This lead to confusion and misunderstanding.

Even though I bought this used, it's condition were as if it were new. Plus the access code was unused and worked perfectly. The price was also significantly better than anywhere else. This was perfect for my summer class

Idk what another reviewer was saying about the highlighter not bleeding through because while the paper isn't glossy, the pages are so thin that the highlighter bleeds to the other side. I have other textbooks with the same texture of paper, but much thicker.I feel like its an expensive book for one that was made so poorly.

I have not read through the entire book however, I would like to note that the paper is the best paper I have run across in a textbook. I tend to highlight my books and have noticed that the highlighter does not go through the page nor does it smear on the page. However, the best part about the paper is it is not the annoying glossy paper (thus not smearing). Glossy paper makes it much harder to read for extended periods of time because of the glare. This book does not have that, it's like reading a fiction novel. I actually want to read this book now because it won't hurt my eyes to do so. Kudos to the authors and publisher!

There is a lot of internet support for this book - some YouTube lectures that use the powerpoints that come with the instructor's copy of the book, help with homework questions, etc. The text is a little bit dry to read.

I bought this book for a college class while taking my Masters. Upon reading it, I found so many typographical errors I lost count. Some pages have multiple errors. And these aren't just misspelled words. The typos occur in the example exercises and illustrations that the author is trying to make a point about. This book makes learning the material so frustrating and difficult. Due to the typos, the book is actually instructing incorrectly. For simplicity sake, if the book were trying to teach how 1 + 1 = 2, there would be a typo where the 2 is and it would be a 3. The book would actually state 1 + 1 =3. How does this help a student trying to learn?! When this happens over and over again, one is bound to lose confidence in this book....and I'm beginning to. Luckily I have the 4th edition of this book at my disposal. I might need to begin reading that book instead. And to charge $90 for a book like this?! Here's a novel idea for the author: go get yourself a proper editor!

Condition

I think this book could be condensed further. I agree with one other reviewer here, if assigned exercises from the book, you will have a tough time trying to figure out how to answer the problems sometimes, because the way to answer the problem is not clearly explained in the book. I have books on calculus, logic, and even english, which detail in a formulaic method, how to go about solving something. This book in my opinion, lacks that. There is a lot of text, unexplained examples. There will be diagrams on pages, with no explanation. This books makes things more complicated than they need to be.

Bought this book for class and read it all. It has very helpful information