Abstract

Computer Organization and Design, Fourth Edition, has been updated with new exercises and improvements throughout suggested by instructors teaching from the book.

It covers the revolutionary change from sequential to parallel computing, with a chapter on parallelism and sections in every chapter highlighting parallel hardware and software topics. It includes an appendix by the Chief Scientist and the Director of Architecture of NVIDIA covering the emergence and importance of the modern GPU, describing in detail for the first time the highly parallel, highly multithreaded multiprocessor optimized for visual computing. A companion CD provides a toolkit of simulators and compilers along with tutorials for using them, as well as advanced content for further study and a search utility for finding content on the CD and in the printed text. For the convenience of readers who have purchased an ebook edition or who may have misplaced the CD-ROM, all CD content is available as a download at bit.ly/nFXcLq.

This book is recommended for professional digital system designers, programmers, application developers, and system software developers; and undergraduate students in Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering courses in Computer Organization, Computer Design, ranging from Sophomore required courses to Senior Electives.

• This Revised Fourth Edition of Computer Organization and Design has been updated with new exercises and improvements throughout suggested by instructors teaching from the book
• Covers the revolutionary change from sequential to parallel computing, with a chapter on parallelism and sections in every chapter highlighting parallel hardware and software topics
• Includes an appendix by the Chief Scientist and the Director of Architecture of NVIDIA covering the emergence and importance of the modern GPU, describing in detail for the first time the highly parallel, highly multithreaded multiprocessor optimized for visual computing

"The new coverage of multiprocessors and parallelism lives up to the standards of this well-written classic. It provides well-motivated, gentle introductions to the new topics, as well as many details and examples drawn from curent hardware." - John Greiner, Rice University

"Patterson and Hennessy not only improve the pedagogy of the traditional material on pipelined processors and memory hierarchies, but also greatly expand the multiprocessor coverage to include emerging multicore processors and GPUs. Computer Organization and Design sets a new benchmark against which all other architecture books must be compared." - David A. Wood, University of Wisconsin-Madison