[.ca] ARM System-on-Chip Architecture (ISBN 0201675196)

perfect introductory book:
I am trying to understand the eCos (embeddable Configurable OS by Red Hat) source code for the Cirruslogic edb7212 development board and this book was the perfect book to read. I'm slowly making headway into the code but without this book, it would have been much slower and much more painful. This book gave me a very good understanding of embedded systems - not just the processor but all the components in an embedded system. One pleasant surprise was how few mistakes were in the book. I really grinded through the text and found very few mistakes.

Excellent introduction to the ARM:
This is an excellent introductory book for the budding ARM programmer. I bought it because I am trying to learn more about programming for the GameBoy Advance, but that is only one of the many different devices that use the ARM. For those who are scared by assembly language and the low-level details, this book is a good way to learn without being tossed into the fire. If you already consider yourself an assembly wizz on another CPU, this book will give you a lot of the details that you might miss otherwise. For example, while the ARM can be coded for in a way similar to the popular x86 line, doing so can lead to very poor code. The ARM chip is also RISC based, and in the past, RISC meant programmer unfriendly. This book shows you the insides of the most programmer friendly RISC chip you'll ever find. I say that if you have any interest in programming for an ARM device (and believe me, there are plenty to program for), this should be on your shelf, right next to the documentation from the ARM web site.

An outstanding collection of ARM knowledge!:
This book is an excellent overall compendium for the ARM processor core. This book is a must for anyone doing embedded design work that has never worked with an ARM core previously. Steve Furber presents the information in a very readable format, but technical enough to capture the important details. The book covers the basic design decisions that went into the ARM originally, the entire ARM family, and then goes on to explain how ARM cores get built into ASICs, and the tools and features of the ARM that make it one of the most powerful embedded cores in the biz. Other topics include: ARM architecture, complete assembly language listing with explanations and bit encodings, organizational considerations like the ARM 3 and 5 stage instruction pipe-lines, the Thumb instruction set (ARM's answer to CISC code density advantage), peripheral memory and on-board cache considerations (like tuning the system clock to your RAM speed for optimal performance), and others. The book is worth every penny!

An exceptional book:
This book is very easy to read, but it also provides surprisingly quite detailed information that is sufficient to understand ARM chips' design and architecture. The book is almost self-contained although a little background in computer organization/architecture is helpful (but not necessary).