CA:AQA is a very good book. However, CO&D gives a good basis for the material explained in the former. CO&D treats single and multicycle processors and pipelined processors in detail, whereas CA:AQA puts even pipelining in an appendix. So IMO, if you want to build a small RISC, it is better start with CO&D and work up to the features described in CA:AQA. That was what I did, at least. Good luck to you. --- In , Tommy Thorn <tt1729@y...> wrote: > > I wanted to know the difference between these two books. Which is more > > helpful for a hardware student willing to build a small RISC? > > > > Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface > > by David A. Patterson, John L. Hennessy, Nitin Indurkhya > > > > and > > > > Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach > > by John L. Hennessy, David A. Patterson, David Goldberg > > I don't know the former, but the latter is my bible and once of the > finest CS books I've ever seen. > > Really, nobody on this list should be without this book (and I doubt > many are). > > /Tommy |