Computer Architecture, 5th Edition

Preface

Why We Wrote This Book

Through five editions of this book, our goal has been to describe the basic principles underlying what will be tomorrow’s technological developments. Our excitement about the opportunities in computer architecture has not abated, and we echo what we said about the field in the first edition: “It is not a dreary science of paper machines that will never work. No! It’s a discipline of keen intellectual interest, requiring the balance of marketplace forces to cost-performance-power, leading to glorious failures and some notable successes.”

Our primary objective in writing our first book was to change the way people learn and think about computer architecture. We feel this goal is still valid and important. The field ...