BKIBMPC.RVW 940201 Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Heather Rignanesi, Marketing, x340, 73171.657@Compuserve.com P.O. Box 520 26 Prince Andrew Place Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 or Tiffany Moore, Publicity tiffanym@aw.com Bob Donegon bobd@aw.com John Wait, Editor, Corporate and Professional Publishing johnw@aw.com Tom Stone, Editor, Higher Education Division tomsto@aw.com Philip Sutherland, Schulman Series 74640.2405@compuserve.com 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-822-6339 617-944-3700 Fax: (617) 944-7273 "The IBM Personal Computer From the Inside Out", Sargent, 1986, 0-201-06918-0, U$26.95/C$34.95 The title might be a bit misleading, here. You are not going to learn very much that would help you with hardware repairs or configuration. Nor will you learn any deep, dark, undocumented secrets. What you will get are the hardware and software fundamentals as related to BIOS/Intel/MS-DOS computers. In spite of its age, this is still a very useful book for those who want to learn the innermost, or perhaps bottom-most, workings of their PC. In spite of improvements in both Intel CPUs and MS-DOS, at heart the systems are still compatible with the earliest, and oldest, IBM PCs. Digital electronics have changed not at all and, in spite of new registers and opcodes, the X86 processors still contain all the workings of their predecessors. Even if you do want to take full advantage of the additional functions on the newer CPUs, you still have to learn the basics first, and this is a good place to start. The coverage of both hardware and software together is a definite plug. All too often, as an old physics prof used to remark, a computer scientist is someone who sits in front of a terminal with a wire leading off into the wall, and not only does he not know what is on the other side of the wall, but he doesn't *want* to know. I have also had extensive experience with technicians who were absolute whizzes with soldering iron and oscilloscope--but who wouldn't dare touch a keyboard. There are some obvious gaps. The introduction to assembly language would benefit enormously from a quick opcode reference chart. The coverage of digital electronics is, if not precisely elementary, at least clear and detailed. However far removed from usefulness in a PC, the construction of a simple device such as a "two-bit adder" might help give credence to the operations of computer logic. Overall, a good introduction for those who want to work with their machines at the deepest levels. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKIBMPC.RVW 940201 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '95, Toronto, ON, February 13-17, 1995, contact: rulag@decus.ca