| Book Description: |
The objective of this book is to make it possible (and even easy) for students to master both assembly language and the fundamentals of architecture in a single semester. Integrating coverage of software and hardware throughout, the book uses H1- a simple, horizontally microprogrammed computer- as a unifying theme. Like all simple models, H1 has flaws, but this book puts these flaws to good use. In particular, in addition to showing students how H1 works and what is wrong with it, the book shows students how to fix it (which they then proceed to do). Students learn best by doing, and this book supplies much to do with various examples and projects to facilitate learning. For example, students not only use assemblers and linkers, they also write their own. Students study and use instruction sets to implement their own. The result is a book that is easy to read, engaging, and substantial. |
