In this slim (315 pages) and expensive ($37.95) volume, Preparata sets out to “ . . . provide a basic knowledge of the organization and operation of computing systems.” The book is oriented towards computer hardware and is intended to fill the equivalent role for computer or electrical engineers that an introductory programming course fills for computer scientists or software engineers. No prerequisites are required except college standing. The book is designed so that six to eight pages of text correspond to a 50-minute lecture.

Preparata has organized the book into three parts: Overview, General Techniques, and System Organization. The short Overview (43 pages) covers binary numbers and conversion to other bases; in the second chapter, Preparata introduces his pedagogical computer SEC, a Simplistic Educational Computer. (Apparently, the value of using an artificial computer as a model was cause for reflection because Preparata devotes about a quarter of the Preface to justifying that decision. He does “tie” SEC to a real microcomputer, the M68000, in an appendix.)

The second part, General Techniques (122 pages), covers in three chapters standard topics of logic design: Boolean algebra and the canonical forms; combinational circuits, Karnaugh map, and Quine-McCluskey minimization; and, finally, sequential networks. The Huffman-Moore model is used for the analysis and synthesis of sequential circuits with a passing mention made to general techniques using ROMs or PLAs.

The final part, System Organization, consists of 114 pages and has four chapters. Binary arithmetic, adders, and ALUs are introduced in Chapter 6. The next chapter defines the SEC machine in terms of a register transfer language. Its basic organization (CPU, RAM, I/O) is described and more advanced topics like index registers, subroutines, stacks, paged memory, and indirect addressing are also covered, albeit simply. Chapter 8 discusses I/O, programmed, interrupt, and DMA. The book’s final chapter presents an overview of the introductory concepts of microprogramming.

Each chapter ends with a Notes and References section which does an adequate job of placing the material in context and providing guidance for further exploration. There are exercises, but no solutions are provided for the student. This is particularly unfortunate since the text, being so short, suffers from having too few worked out examples.

All in all, the material is well presented. The figures are clearly done. (However, I would have preferred more extensive use of innovative graphics to help the words convey the ideas.) No major topics are omitted, even though the coverage of some is quite brief.

Nevertheless, Preparata’s book is not one I would choose for one of my classes. I prefer to have introductory texts which can be used for a two-course sequence. There are two reasons: first, I can pick and choose which optional topics to teach as the need or desire arises; second, the students can use the book as a familiar tool to delve into material not covered in the first course, whether or not it is actually used in the second course of the sequence. With Preparata’s text, one is forced to cover exactly those topics which he has deemed valuable, or to supplement with notes those he has left out.