20 Sep
2014
20 Sep
'14
2:08 p.m.
From: Sean Caron
"Computer Engineering: A DEC view of hardware
systems design" by Bell
et al. offers a really nice look at the historical origins of all the
various PDP lines.
A 'must buy' for all DEC enthusiasts, IMO.
Another very interesting Bell et al. text that I enjoy
is "Computer
Structures: Principles and Examples" though it is (very) much less
DEC-centric.
There are two editions (at least - I have a '71 and an '82), and they cover
very different machines. E.g. the '71 has Whirlwind, the 7094, STRETCH, etc,
which the '82 doesn't. And of course the '82 has a whole bunch of later
machines which the '71 doesn't have - AMD29xx, various micros, Cray, VAX, etc,
etc.
Noel
20 Sep
20 Sep
2:52 p.m.
Hi Noel,
I agree wholeheartedly with regard to "A DEC view of hardware systems
design" it is a great book and a must-have for anyone interested in DEC
hardware.
Now, my Computer Structures: Principles and Examples is a 1982 printing.
I see there are two very similarly titled but discrete books by Bell et al.
One is Computer Structures: Principles and Examples and one is Computer
Structures: Readings and Examples.
I had thought Readings & Examples was the older one and Principles &
Examples was the newer one but I am not certain.
The list of titles in the McGraw-Hill Computer Science Series at the front
of the book, implies both were published concurrently, though I am not
clear that this was actually the case.
The two books you have are both titled Principles and Examples and cover
different material?
Just curious... As you note, the 1982 printing includes PDPs, VAX, IBM
360, IBM S/38, Cray, CDC, Burroughs, STARAN, Illiac IV, AM29xx, PIC (?!)
etc. Runs the whole gamut from mainframe to micro. It never fails to pique
my interest, reading about all the different approaches to computer
architecture that were tried.
If the earlier printing is materially different I'll have to add it to my
watchlist. I have the IBM's Early Computers text on MIT Press which gives
pretty good coverage to the pre-S/360 IBM world.
Best,
Sean
On Sat, Sep 20, 2014 at 6:08 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:
From: Sean
Caron
"Computer Engineering: A DEC view of
hardware systems design" by Bell
et al. offers a really nice look at the historical origins of all the
various PDP lines.
A 'must buy' for all DEC enthusiasts, IMO.
Another very interesting Bell et al. text that I
enjoy is "Computer
Structures: Principles and Examples" though it is (very) much less
DEC-centric.
There are two editions (at least - I have a '71 and an '82), and they cover
very different machines. E.g. the '71 has Whirlwind, the 7094, STRETCH,
etc,
which the '82 doesn't. And of course the '82 has a whole bunch of later
machines which the '71 doesn't have - AMD29xx, various micros, Cray, VAX,
etc,
etc.
Noel
4:30 p.m.
On Sat, Sep 20, 2014 at 3:52 PM, Sean Caron <scaron at umich.edu> wrote:
Hi Noel,
I agree wholeheartedly with regard to "A DEC view of hardware systems
design" it is a great book and a must-have for anyone interested in DEC
hardware.
Now, my Computer Structures: Principles and Examples is a 1982 printing.
I see there are two very similarly titled but discrete books by Bell et al.
One is Computer Structures: Principles and Examples and one is Computer
Structures: Readings and Examples.
I had thought Readings & Examples was the older one and Principles &
Examples was the newer one but I am not certain.
The list of titles in the McGraw-Hill Computer Science Series at the front
of the book, implies both were published concurrently, though I am not
clear that this was actually the case.
The two books you have are both titled Principles and Examples and cover
different material?
Just curious... As you note, the 1982 printing includes PDPs, VAX, IBM
360, IBM S/38, Cray, CDC, Burroughs, STARAN, Illiac IV, AM29xx, PIC (?!)
etc. Runs the whole gamut from mainframe to micro. It never fails to pique
my interest, reading about all the different approaches to computer
architecture that were tried.
If the earlier printing is materially different I'll have to add it to my
watchlist. I have the IBM's Early Computers text on MIT Press which gives
pretty good coverage to the pre-S/360 IBM world.
According to Bell's page (
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/gbvita.htm):
Bell C. G., A. Newell, COMPUTER STRUCTURES: READINGS AND EXAMPLES,
<http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/CGB%20Files/Computer%20Structures%20Readings%20and%20Examples%201971.pdf>
McGraw-Hill,
1971
Siewiorek, D., C. G. Bell, A. Newell, COMPUTER STRUCTURES; PRINCIPLES
AND EXAMPLES,
<http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/CGB%20Files/Computer%20Structures%20Principles%20and%20Examples%201982%20ng%20c.pdf>
McGraw-Hill,
1982
-- Charles
5:12 p.m.
Nice, thanks. I don't regret buying Principles & Examples first; I think it
is more germane to my immediate interests, though after a quick perusal I
can see there is definitely some interesting stuff in Readings & Examples
that got replaced in the later text. Onto my Amazon wishlist it goes :)
Slightly off-topic but can anyone speak to the quality of any of the other
titles in this series? Madnick's Operating Systems? Donovan's Systems
Programming? Katzan's Microprogramming Primer? I'll toss some of the other
titles onto my next used book order if they are anywhere up to the same
standard as Bell's computer architecture text.
Best,
Sean
On Sat, Sep 20, 2014 at 8:30 PM, Charles Anthony <charles.unix.pro at gmail.com
wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 20, 2014 at 3:52 PM, Sean Caron <scaron at umich.edu wrote:
>
> > Hi Noel,
> >
> > I agree wholeheartedly with regard to "A DEC view of hardware systems
> > design" it is a great book and a must-have for anyone interested in DEC
> > hardware.
> >
> > Now, my Computer Structures: Principles and Examples is a 1982 printing.
> >
> > I see there are two very similarly titled but discrete books by Bell et
> al.
> > One is Computer Structures: Principles and Examples and one is Computer
> > Structures: Readings and Examples.
> >
> > I had thought Readings & Examples was the older one and Principles &
> > Examples was the newer one but I am not certain.
> >
> > The list of titles in the McGraw-Hill Computer Science Series at the
> front
> > of the book, implies both were published concurrently, though I am not
> > clear that this was actually the case.
> >
> > The two books you have are both titled Principles and Examples and cover
> > different material?
> >
> > Just curious... As you note, the 1982 printing includes PDPs, VAX, IBM
> > 360, IBM S/38, Cray, CDC, Burroughs, STARAN, Illiac IV, AM29xx, PIC (?!)
> > etc. Runs the whole gamut from mainframe to micro. It never fails to
> pique
> > my interest, reading about all the different approaches to computer
> > architecture that were tried.
> >
> > If the earlier printing is materially different I'll have to add it to my
> > watchlist. I have the IBM's Early Computers text on MIT Press which gives
> > pretty good coverage to the pre-S/360 IBM world.
> >
> >
> According to Bell's page (
> http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/gbvita.htm):
>
> Bell C. G., A. Newell, COMPUTER STRUCTURES: READINGS AND EXAMPLES,
> <
>
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/CGB%20Files/Computer%20…
> >
> McGraw-Hill,
> 1971
>
> Siewiorek, D., C. G. Bell, A. Newell, COMPUTER STRUCTURES; PRINCIPLES
> AND EXAMPLES,
> <
>
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/CGB%20Files/Computer%20…
> >
> McGraw-Hill,
> 1982
>
> -- Charles
>
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days inactive
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3 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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charles.unix.pro＠gmail.com -
jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu -
scaron＠umich.edu