Rating: 
Summary: Writing style is too difficult to understand.
Review: Let me start off by saying that I consider myself to have an excellent knowledge of computers (including hardware, software, and software design) and a reasonable knowledge of hardware design and electronic circuits. Despite this fact, every time I finish reading a section of this book, I'm completely lost.
You ever hear the expression "this reads like stereo instructions"? Well I think the author of that expression first said that after reading this book.
I'm not an idiot, but this book is just written in a style that is way too difficult to understand. Sometimes I'm reading about a topic that I already know everything about, but I still can't understand what the book is talking about. I have to read and reread each sentence till I can finally safely conclude that "this" is what he's trying to say. However, if you have no knowledge of the topic prior to reading it, that is an impossible task.
So far, after reading each topic from this book (and being completely confused when I'm done), I've had to look the topic up on the internet, and within minutes I completely understand it. The topics aren't hard. They're almost easy, but his writing style is so difficult to understand that you feel like you're reading about nuclear physics.
If your a student and you have to read this book, I strongly reccommend that you don't get discouraged, and just turn to the internet to understand the material.
Rating: 
Summary: Good introductory book on computer structure & architecture
Review: Mano's book served as the main text for 2 courses I've taken this year (I'm a 2nd year Computer Science student). The book is quite informative. The chapter dealing with the basic computer (chap. 5) and the one dealing with assembly for this computer (chap. 6) are especially good. These chapters are full of details, and let you understand how a real computer works. The chapter about microprogramming is also good. The chapters about the CPU, I/O, computer memory and pipeline are less detailed, but give you a general feeling of how things work. Generally speaking, the book is very good, although it is not perfect; mistakes do pop up here and there, although they are not major. I hope a new edition will come out soon, because some of the material seems to be outdated (the estimated computation times used, for example, are just too slow -- one joked calling them mano seconds instead of nano seconds :)).
Rating: 
Summary: Detailed but missing some essentials
Review: The book gives a detail introduction to computer hardware but it does not have some basic essentials: 1. No answers to the end of chapter problems were given. 2. No examples to problems with full solutions 3. No end of chapter reviews or glossary at end of text.A study guide would be nice too.
Rating:
Summary: Nothign Exceptional, but not bad either
Review: This book is not very hard to follow if you dive down into it. Everything presented is presented in an easy to understand, clear way. The exercises and hypothetical computer architecture gets a little annoying, why learn a language that doesn't exist when there are hundreds out there that could actually be used for something other than a course in hardware? The problems are several. First of all, the author leaves many many avenues of obvious questions unexplored. This is a nice introduction to hardware, but it really doesn't get into much detail on some of the more complex areas such as ALU design. In keeping with his "skimming the surface" paradigm, the exercises at the end of the chapter are trivial to say the least. They will not challenge you if you were even remotely attentive while reading. The book isn't the worst out there, but I'm sure there are better.
Rating:
Summary: Nothign Exceptional, but not bad either
Review: This book is not very hard to follow if you dive down into it. Everything presented is presented in an easy to understand, clear way. The exercises and hypothetical computer architecture gets a little annoying, why learn a language that doesn't exist when there are hundreds out there that could actually be used for something other than a course in hardware? The problems are several. First of all, the author leaves many many avenues of obvious questions unexplored. This is a nice introduction to hardware, but it really doesn't get into much detail on some of the more complex areas such as ALU design. In keeping with his "skimming the surface" paradigm, the exercises at the end of the chapter are trivial to say the least. They will not challenge you if you were even remotely attentive while reading. The book isn't the worst out there, but I'm sure there are better.
Rating:
Summary: Great book to learn about the innards of a CPU
Review: This is the worst book out there in computer hardware or architecture. The bad part about it is that it cost more than a good book. Computer Organization: Hardware and Software Interface is 80 dollars. This book is 100.
This book lacks in detail and is quite insufficient. Don't waste your money or time!
Rating: 
Summary: The WORST Book I've ever seen...
Review: This is the worst book out there in computer hardware or architecture. The bad part about it is that it cost more than a good book. Computer Organization: Hardware and Software Interface is 80 dollars. This book is 100.
This book lacks in detail and is quite insufficient. Don't waste your money or time!
Rating:
Summary: Not suitable for undergrads
Review: This was the required textbook for my 300-level CIS course, and I found it to be highly disappointing. The initial few chapters are manageable, albeit extremely dry reading. Subsequent chapters offer a frustrating paradox: they seem to overload the reader with details, and yet not enough explanatory detail of the aforementioned details for reader comprehension. It suffers mostly from "stating" information instead of "explaining" it. This book is (perhaps) best suited as a general review text for people already in the know, although it may not even be appropriate for that task. Difficult to read, not enough examples/explanatory detail, unimaginative illustrations...all-in-all an inexplicable choice for an undergraduate textbook, and certainly offers help to neither professor nor student.
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