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Hardware Bible - Premier Edition Although entitledHardware Biblethis book mainly covers Intel based IBM PC compatible architecture and peripherals. It starts with the processor, motherboard and memory covering the various IBM PC compatible standards (from the early IBM PCs up to Microsoft's PC97), microprocessor technology (pipelining, superscaler, microcode, RISC, VLIW) comparing the Intel family (MMX, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, etc.) with offerings from AMD and Cyrix. I/O is then described starting with busses, mass storage devices (including CD-R, RAID, SCSI-3, Fiber Channel, etc.), display adapters, sound cards, parallel/serial ports, networking, etc. The CD contains a mass of useful support information.

This text is a comprehensive overview of IBM PC compatible microprocessor architecture and peripherals but does not go into the level of detail of specialist books on advanced computer architectures, Pentium Pro, PCI bus, etc. Although technical it is very readable and may be used by anyone who wishes to learn about PC technology and what the various bits that make up a PC do and what applications require them, e.g. do you need MMX technology when buying a new PC. It would be useful as a reference for hardware or software engineers working on or using IBM PC technology and in a library in educational institutions running courses in computer science, IT, electrical engineering, etc.