Book excerpt: A problem/solution manual, integrating general principles and laboratory exercises, that provides students with the hands-on experience needed to master the basics of modern computer system design Features more than 200 detailed problems, with step-by-step solutions; many detailed graphics and charts; chapter summaries with additional "rapid-review" questions; and expert sidebar tips Describes analytical methods for quantifying real-world design choices regarding instruction sets, pipelining, cache, memory, I/O, and other critical hardware and software elements involved in building computers An ideal educational resource for the more than 70,000 undergraduate and graduate students who, each year, enroll in computer architecture and related courses