Reading guidelines

Below you will find some recommendations about which parts of the book you can prioritize. Remember though, if you want to get a really good result in the written test, you should go through the whole book.

Computer Architecture:

• Chapter 1, Computer Systems, section 1.5
• Chapter 7, The CPU and Memory, section 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6
• Chapter 8, The CPU and Memory: Design, Implementation and Enhancement, section 8.3 (only "Cache Memory")
• Chapter 9, Input/Output, section 9.1
• Chapter 10, Computer Peripherals, section 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4

Operating systems:

• Chapter 13.0-13.6, 13.8
• Chapter 14.0, 14.1, 14.3 och 14.6
• Chapter 15.0 -15.6 och 15.9
• Chapter 16.0 - 16.2, 16.4 och 16.5
• Chapter 17.0 och 17.4-17.6
• Chapter ( 18.0 -18.2)

Networks:

• Chapter 11.0 from page 306 until end, plus sections 11.4 och 11.6

Additionally for the network part:
- Chapter 1 from Tanenbaum
- as well as a paper about Bluetooth and WLAN.
Everything except the latter is available under http://www.ida.liu.se/~juhta/tddc31/

About the concept of the textbook

Irv Englander writes in the preface of the book:

“Interestingly enough, however, as profound as advances in the technology have been, the concepts of computer architecture that really matter have changed only nominally over the last 50 years. The new technologies are based on a foundation of architectural concepts that were developed many years ago. The architecture of a modern computer system was developed in the 1940s. The instruction set in a modern personal computer is nearly identical to that of computers built in the 1950s and 1960s. Modern operating system techniques were developed in the 1960s. The graphical user interface is based on a 1960s project. The Internet is more than 25 years old.
So You see that an understanding of computer architecture makes it possible to "ride the wave" of technological change, secure in the feeling that you are equipped to deal with new developments as they occur, and to have fun doing so. When you are done reading this book, you will have substantial knowledge about how a computer works and a good understanding of the operating concepts, the hardware and system software that make up a computer. You will see the interaction between computers and between data and the computer. Plus, you will learn lots of jargon that you can show of at parties.”

Page responsible: Krisjanis Steins
Last updated: 2006-08-27