1. Tanenbaum, A "Structured
Computer Organization", 4th ed. Prentice Hall, 1999
The author is famous as the inventor
of MINIX, the forerunner of todays linux. This book is a good general background
read on the subject, although it lacks the in-depth coverage of some of the course
components (such as looking at register-transfer level).
2. Furber, S "ARM System Architecture",
Addison Wesley, 1996
Professor Furber from Manchester University
was the designer of the original ARM RISC processor, and has continued
to innovate since then. This book follows the
thought processes involved in designing
a CPU. As the ARM is an exceptionally clean and elegant design, this is
a good example architecture to study. This book has
an excellent coverage of hardware issues.
3. Stallings, W "Computer Organization and Architecture", 4th ed. Prentice Hall, 1996
4. Hayes, J "Computer Architecture and Organization",
2nd ed. McGraw Hill, 1988
This is a good all-round book that covers
topics in sufficient detail.
5. de Blasi, M "Computer Architecture", Addison Wesley, 1990
6. Hennesy J and Patterson D, "Computer
Architecture: A Quantitative Approach", Morgan Kaufmann, 1990
8. Heuring V.P., Jorden H.F., "Computer Systems design and
architecture", Addison Wesley
A good book that excells in its description of multipliers and other
low-level processor units. Also gives a lot of guidance on practical
CPU design.
Note: no author is perfect. Even the best book will not explain certain concepts as well as others. If you don't understand a point, it is worth looking at a few of the listed books. The chances are that you will find that one of them explains well enough so that you understand fully.