The era of seemingly unlimited growth in processor performance is over: single chip architectures can no longer overcome the performance limitations imposed by the power they consume and the heat they generate. Today, Intel and other semiconductor firms are abandoning the single fast processor model in favor of multi-core microprocessors - chips that combine two or more processors in a single package. In the fourth edition of "Computer Architecture", the authors focus on this historic shift, increasing their coverage of multiprocessors and exploring the most effective ways of achieving parallelism as the key to unlocking the power of multiple processor architectures. Additionally, the new edition has expanded and updated coverage of design topics beyond processor performance, including power, reliability, availability, and dependability.The CD material includes PDF documents that you can read with a PDF viewer such as Adobe, Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Recent versions of Adobe Reader for some platforms are included on the CD. The navigation framework on this CD is delivered in HTML and JavaScript.
It is recommended that you install the latest version of your favorite HTML browser to view this CD. The content has been verified under Windows XP with the following browsers: Internet Explorer 6.0, Firefox 1.5; under Mac OS X (Panther) with the following browsers: Internet Explorer 5.2, Firefox 1.0.6, Safari 1.3; and under Mandriva Linux 2006 with the following browsers: Firefox 1.0.6, Konqueror 3.4.2, Mozilla 1.7.11. The content is designed to be viewed in a browser window that is at least 720 pixels wide.You may find the content does not display well if your display is not set to at least 1024x768 pixel resolution. This CD can be used under any operating system that includes an HTML browser and a PDF viewer. This includes Windows, Mac OS, and most Linux and Unix systems. It includes increased coverage on achieving parallelism with multiprocessors. It features case studies of latest technology from industry including the Sun Niagara Multiprocessor, AMD Opteron, and Pentium 4. Three review appendices, included in the printed volume, review the basic and intermediate principles the main text relies upon.
Eight reference appendices, collected on the CD, cover a range of topics including specific architectures, embedded systems, application specific processors - some guest authored by subject experts.