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The Indispensible PC Hardware Book (2nd ed) by Messmer Recommended

ISBN: 0-201-87697-3       Publisher: Addison-Wesley       Pages: 1152 pages       Price: £29-95

Categories:   internals and hardware

Reviewed by Michael Wild in C Vu 7-6 (Sep 1995)

Messmer covers all the common elements likely to be found in a PC :

CPUs : 8086 to Pentium (including clones and coprocessors)
Memory : ROM, RAM, cache, controllers
Buses : XT, ISA, EISA, MCA, VESA, PCI, PCMCIA
Support chips : PIC, PIT, DMA, PPI, CMOS/RTC
Discs : Floppy, ST506, IDE, EIDE, SCSI
IO : serial, parallel, keyboard, mouse
Video : MDA, Herc, CGA, EGA, VGA, VESA
This scope is similar to Sargent & Shoemaker (C Vu 7.5), but Messmer confines himself mainly to the hardware and BIOS levels and consequently goes into vastly more detail than S&S. He gives pinouts and register-level descriptions for the chips and descriptions of the BIOS interface and low- level protocols where these are relevant; there is usually enough information to program directly to the hardware. Some higher-level items are mentioned (for instance, the FAT file system) but coverage of these is patchy.

For very detailed coverage of individual hardware items you would find more detail in a good specialised reference and for the ultimate level of detail, such as timing information, you'll have to get the chip datasheets. There are a few curious small omissions - for instance no description of the Enhanced Parallel Port - but on the whole, an excellent book.