Comprehensive coverage spans the entire computer design field * Utilizes a top-down approach-computer system, processor, control unit- for clarity and ease of use. The objective is to present the material in a fashion that keeps new material in a clear context. * Systems are viewed from both the architectural and organizational structure perspectives to help students gain a comprehensive overview of computer design. * A unified treatment of I/O provides a full understanding of I/O functions and structures, including discussions of DMA, direct cache access, and external interfaces. * A focus on multicore gives students a broad understanding of this technology, found in virtually all contemporary machines. * A thorough discussion of instruction sets, including a new chapter on assembly language. * Detailed use of specific examples throughout the book to illustrate concepts, including Intel x86, ARM embedded system architecture, and IBM z13 mainframe. Hands-on experience reinforces concepts from the text * Homework problems, case studies, and additional student resources enhance their understanding of the material.

* Projects and other student exercises are richly supported with a variety of research, simulation, and assembly language projects that instructors can use to tailor a course plan. * Over 20 interactive simulations illustrate computer architecture design issues, providing a powerful tool for understanding the complex design features of a modern computer system. Chapter updates keep the text current * Several chapters and discussions have been revised for the 11th Edition, including: o New - A discussion of multichip modules (MCMs), has been added to Chapter 1. o Updated - Updated treatment of SPEC benchmarks in Chapter 2 covers the new SPEC CPU2017 benchmark suite. o New - A chapter on memory hierarchy expands on material that was in the cache memory chapter and adds expanded coverage of both the principle of locality and the memory hierarchy. o Revised - The cache memory chapter (Chapter 5) now includes expanded treatment of logical cache organization, including new figures, to improve overall clarity. o New - Coverage of content-addressable memory, write allocate, and no write allocate policies have been added to Chapter 5. o New - A section on the increasingly popular Embedded DRAM, or eDRAM, is included in Chapter 6.