A new book from No Starch Press explains what microprocessors do and how they do it. Inside the Machine: An Illustrated Introduction to Microprocessors and Computer Architecture, by Jon “Hannibal” Stokes, uses analogies, four-color diagrams, and clear language to convey the principles of modern computing,… according to No Starch.

(Click here for larger image)

Stokes, who is co-founder and senior CPU editor of the Ars Technica website for PC enthusiasts, begins by discussing computers in the abstract. He then examines specific microprocessors from Intel, IBM, and Motorola — from the original Intel Pentium, through today's leading-edge chips. He also explains technology terms and concepts that readers often hear but may not fully understand, such as pipelining, L1 cache, main memory, superscalar processing, and out-of-order execution, according to the publisher.

To assist Stokes with his preparation of the book, Intel granted him access to previously unreleased information about the Pentium M, Core and Core 2 Duo chips, No Starch says.

Among the topics covered in the book are:

• Parts of the computer and microprocessor
• Programming fundamentals (arithmetic instructions, memory accesses, control flow instructions, data types)
• Intermediate and advanced microprocessor concepts (pipelining, superscalar execution, out-of-order execution, branch prediction, speculative execution)
• Intermediate and advanced computing concepts (machine language instructions (encoding and decoding), instruction set architectures, RISC and CISC, the memory hierarchy)
• 64-bit computing vs. 32-bit computing
• Caching and performance

No Starch publisher and founder Bill Pollock stated, “Jon and Ars Technica have been dishing out down-and-dirty tech coverage for years. I've been a regular site reader myself and respect the way they mix accurate, informative coverage with opinions and attitude. We think Jon's Ars Technica audience dovetails nicely with the geeks who read our books.”

Further details on the book are available here. The table of contents is here, and a sample PDF chapter can be downloaded from here.

Inside the Machine: An Illustrated Introduction to Microprocessors and Computer Architecture (ISBN: 1593271042) lists for about $50 and is currently available from Amazon.com for $33 (item #92,965 in Books).

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.