No label defined (Q4040535)

This is the fourth enlarged and revised edition of an elementary introduction to the structure of computer hardware, first time published in the early seventies (first ed. 1970; Zbl 0193.143; second ed. 1976; Zbl 0316.68001). The proved arrangement is retained. The book starts with numbers, codes and information and its representation in the computer. Chapter two gives an short overview to Boolean algebra and switching networks as fundamentals of computer hardware design. Technical components of computers and hardware technologies are treated in the next chapter. It comprises logical gates and flip-flops, integrated circuit families, working memories of different structures, peripheral storage devices, I/O-units and busses as interconnection elements. These three introducing chapters fill one half of the volume. The structure of computers is represented with help of the ``J. von Neumann''-model and illustrated with two examples - the Minima, an early German computer, as example for the serial universal computing automat (with very low relevance in contemporary computer systems) and - the microprocessor as example for a parallel universal computing automat. Chapter six is dedicated to microprogramming as an important principle of controlling computers. Structures and working principles of arithmetical units are outlined relatively detailed in chapter seven. The treatise of memory organization in chapter eight is to short and incomplete compared with its practical meaning. In a concluding chapter aspects of up-to-date computer systems - including performance increases by ``Non-von-Neumann'' (parallel) architectures, improved reliability and computer networks are introduced very shortly and incompletely. According to the German title the computer is interpreted by the author as a ``digital computing automat''. Therefore the main view of the volume concerns fundamentals and technical implementations of computing. From this reason the book is qualified for mathematicians and informaticians as an introduction to computer hardware. Advanced control structures and architectures (data flow, objectoriented, parallel systems, transputers etc.) are not adequately represented. The meaning of the computer as technical basis for advanced (distributed) information processing systems (expert systems and picture processing) and the new architecture approaches connected with these applications are not sufficiently appreciated.