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Microprocessor cookbook
The challenge of microprocessors Michael G Hartley and Anne Buckley (editors), Manchester University Press (1979), 202 pp, £7.95 There is a bold ring to the title of this book which is sadly belied by the nature of the contents. Most of the articles collected here, as the foreword clearly explains, are from a special issue of the International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education. What is difficult to understand is why such a diversity of contributions, ranging from a view of the social effects of the micro-revolution to the possibility of extending the instruction set of the Z80, and from a listing of currently available microprocessors to the teaching of microprocessors in New Zealand, should have been regarded as suitable for more permanent presentation in hardcover form. This comment in no way implies adverse judgement of individual contributions. They inevitably vary in quality, but there are a number that, encountered in a journal,
would prove rewarding reading, and could usefully be placed on file for further reference. The trouble is, that those articles would sensibly find a home in quite different files. There must be many people currently engaged in planning, or updating, introductory courses in this field, and for whom the group of articles on different approaches to such teaching will provide a useful sounding-board for their own ideas. A 32-page 'Introduction to microprocessor systems' offers a helpful review, but inevitably competes with many similar, and more recent, accounts. A summary of available microprocessors, although a valuable resource, misses, for example, the Motorola 68000, and will inevitably age further with each passing month. Two sections of the book provide reports on microprocessors in a laboratory setting, and, once again, there will be readers who will find helpful material here. However, one cannot avoid the final conclusion that a collection so
Computerist's handy databook/ dictionary Clayton L Hallmark, Tab Books (19 79,1, 96 pp, $3.95 This slim handbook bears an ungainly and misleading title. Apart from tables illustrating various binary codings and diagrams and notations relating to logic devices, the computerist (sic) is simply offered the instruction sets and architectures of the 8080 and the 6800 (including a reproduction of the circuitry of the 8080 so badly printed as to barely qualify for the term 'impressionistic').
vol 4 no 3 april 80
These earlier chapters display a careless relation between text and illustrations, thus detracting from the convenience which is the sole justification for a compilation of such standard material. A 35-page glossary of microcomputer terminology and a brief listing of acronyms conclude this somewhat opportunistic databook/ dictionary.
David L Hurd Physics Department University of Surrey
diversely focused, and on a subject area so rapidly developing, is likely to quickly lose its place amidst the exploding literature that surrounds the microprocessor.
David L Hurd Physics Department University of Surrey
Microprocessor cookbook Michael F Horderski, Tab Books (19 79) 264 pp, $5.95 A comparative study of a variety of currently available microprocessors can provide a valuable aid to the understanding of such devices. Both commonality of structure, and, with suitable guidance, variations of architecture, serve to highlight the essential processor operations and their possible alternative implementation. The 'Microprocessor cookbook' is an informative paperback volume offering just such a comparison. It is clearly written and amply supported by diagrams and tables, and the text, although summarily descriptive for the most part, incorporates helpful comments bearing on realistic application. The opening chapter discusses a microcomputer based on a 4-bit processor (the PPS-4) and illustrates the functioning of the microprocessor by following through in detail the register transfers associated with a typical instruction sequence. The following chapters each devote some twenty pages to the 8080, 6800, F8, Z80, TMS 9900, and SC/MP microprocessors. The concluding chapters review CPU design technology and briefly survey several additional processors, including some bit-slice examples. David L Hurd Physics Department University of Surrey
107
would prove rewarding reading, and could usefully be placed on file for further reference. The trouble is, that those articles would sensibly find a home in quite different files. There must be many people currently engaged in planning, or updating, introductory courses in this field, and for whom the group of articles on different approaches to such teaching will provide a useful sounding-board for their own ideas. A 32-page 'Introduction to microprocessor systems' offers a helpful review, but inevitably competes with many similar, and more recent, accounts. A summary of available microprocessors, although a valuable resource, misses, for example, the Motorola 68000, and will inevitably age further with each passing month. Two sections of the book provide reports on microprocessors in a laboratory setting, and, once again, there will be readers who will find helpful material here. However, one cannot avoid the final conclusion that a collection so
Computerist's handy databook/ dictionary Clayton L Hallmark, Tab Books (19 79,1, 96 pp, $3.95 This slim handbook bears an ungainly and misleading title. Apart from tables illustrating various binary codings and diagrams and notations relating to logic devices, the computerist (sic) is simply offered the instruction sets and architectures of the 8080 and the 6800 (including a reproduction of the circuitry of the 8080 so badly printed as to barely qualify for the term 'impressionistic').
vol 4 no 3 april 80
These earlier chapters display a careless relation between text and illustrations, thus detracting from the convenience which is the sole justification for a compilation of such standard material. A 35-page glossary of microcomputer terminology and a brief listing of acronyms conclude this somewhat opportunistic databook/ dictionary.
David L Hurd Physics Department University of Surrey
diversely focused, and on a subject area so rapidly developing, is likely to quickly lose its place amidst the exploding literature that surrounds the microprocessor.
David L Hurd Physics Department University of Surrey
Microprocessor cookbook Michael F Horderski, Tab Books (19 79) 264 pp, $5.95 A comparative study of a variety of currently available microprocessors can provide a valuable aid to the understanding of such devices. Both commonality of structure, and, with suitable guidance, variations of architecture, serve to highlight the essential processor operations and their possible alternative implementation. The 'Microprocessor cookbook' is an informative paperback volume offering just such a comparison. It is clearly written and amply supported by diagrams and tables, and the text, although summarily descriptive for the most part, incorporates helpful comments bearing on realistic application. The opening chapter discusses a microcomputer based on a 4-bit processor (the PPS-4) and illustrates the functioning of the microprocessor by following through in detail the register transfers associated with a typical instruction sequence. The following chapters each devote some twenty pages to the 8080, 6800, F8, Z80, TMS 9900, and SC/MP microprocessors. The concluding chapters review CPU design technology and briefly survey several additional processors, including some bit-slice examples. David L Hurd Physics Department University of Surrey
107