This book takes a modern structured, layered approach to understanding computer systems. It's highly accessible - and it's been thoroughly updated to reflect today's most critical new technologies and the latest developments in computer organization and architecture. Tanenbaum’s renowned writing style and painstaking research make this one of the most accessible and accurate books available, maintaining the author’s popular method of presenting a computer as a series of layers, each one built upon the ones below it, and understandable as a separate entity. A CD-ROM for assembly language programmers is available for teachers. For all computer professionals and engineers who need an overview or introduction to computer architecture.