Rating: 
Summary: Not understandable if you are totally a beginner
Review: The book does not explain very well. Problems produce problems. You often try to understand other things while you concentrate on a paticular subject. Question on the back of the book is not very easy to solve. Some of the question you can not even find in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: It's complicated
Review: The book is nothing but a whole lot of history. When it comes down to the questions in the back of the books, I get lost. An example:Consider a multilevel computer in which all levels are different. Each level has instructions that are m times as powerful as those of the level below it; that is, one level r instruction can do the work of m level r-1 instructions. If level 1 program requires k seconds to run, how long would equivalent programs take at level 2,3, and 4, assuming n level r instructions are required to interpret a single r + 1 instruction? What the hell is he talking about? The chapter talks about levels and instructions but it is not phrased in such a manner!
Rating: 
Summary: Very Technical. Okay for entry level course
Review: The text was required for a first year graduate course. A pretty dry read. The chapter exercises were challenging, but they required additional sources on my part (not enough info. in the book) to answer the questions. Most times I had to thoroughly reread sections to even begin to understand some of the material. Not bad, but definitely needed the blanks filled in by the instructor.
Rating:
Summary: Incomplete
Review: There are some things missing from this book. (1) HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) (2) Binary compatibility (e.g., WABI) (3) The ports: logican and physical. In what way they are different. What's exactly the meaning of that (port) number to the processing inside the computer. I'm not representing Microsoft. Though the two points highly related to Microsoft, but with its dominance, those two technology have to be taken into account.
Rating:
Summary: ESP
Review: This book is a real fence walker. The reader is given a sense of security while reading the chapters most explanations are comprehendible. However, the reader might find ESP more helpful than the book when answering some of the questions at the end of the chapters. A little bit of thinking is good, mind reading is a waste of time.
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely readable and thoroughly enjoyable
Review: This book is in my opinion, one of the best books available on Comp. Organization. It treats the computer as a layered machine with each successive layer being isolated from the complexities of the layers underneath. Design abstraction is carried to supreme heights without sacrificing content and relevant details. In particular, chapter 4 on 'The micropragramming level' is probably the best on this subject that I've seen so far in any introductory book. I'm actually using this chapter to teach the concepts of microprogrammed control to senior BS students of Computer science. Be warned however, that if you are looking for more detailed treatment of architecture (Digital Logic), you need to buy another book to go with this one (Try the one by Morris Mano et. al.) This book compares favorably with another related book "Comp. Organization" by Hamacher et al. Together, these books can be used to effectively teach/understand the concepts of layered design. In short, I recommend this book to all beginners!
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: This book will garantee that you fully understand how a computer system works in great detail, starting from logic gates, passing through the microarchitecture of the microprocessor, the instruction set, the operating system, the assembler and finishing by parallel processing architectures. I especially liked the decompostion of a computer system in a series of layers (the way networks are usually treated), and the real world examples illustrating the concepts of the book. This book, like all of professor Tanenbaum's books, is an important part of my library.
Rating:
Summary: Every programmer should read this one.
Review: This book, probably the oldest of the Tanenbaum tetralogy, is in my opinion, the finest. This can double up as a first course in Operating Systems as well as Computer Architecture/Organization. I wish our school had used this as the textbook for our first year CO class. The material covered is fundamental yet very readable. Coverage of microprogramming(including some good stuff about x86 Micro Architecture), virtual memory, instruction set design, RISC v CISC, multicomputers. The tenet of this book is that a computer can be viewed as a series of layered machines, with chapters describing each machine. Overall a great value for anybody who wants to have a better idea of what goes under computer systems, without too much pains.
Rating:
Summary: Superb text!
Review: This is a quite engaging book always stimulating and engaging.The text presents the computer as a multilayered machine and the author makes a terrific job of describing each level and the relations between different levels.The exposition is outstanding.Studyng this text i progressed from complete ignorance to a good level of knoweldge about this subject!5 stars!
Rating:
Summary: A great introduction to computer hardware and architecture
Review: This is a superb introduction to modern computer architecture and is highly readable. I particularly enjoyed the running examples of the Pentium, UltraSPARC & Java VM, and the chapter on parallel computer architectures. I heartily recommend this to computer programmers who want to gain a fundamental understanding of computer architecture.
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