Hacker's Delight

Customer Reviews:

This is a fantastic book!.......2007-03-24

I have a virtual calculator called the DIY Calculator that accompanies my own book "How Computers Do Math" The Definitive Guide to How Computers Do Math : Featuring the Virtual DIY Calculator.

I recently added a "Conundrums, Puzzles, and Posers" section to the "Programs and Subroutines" page on my DIY Calculator website ([...]) and I've started to build a collection of simple puzzles for people to play with.

One of the first problems I posed was to count the number of ones in the 8-bit accumulator and to present the result as a binary value. I thought I had discovered the best-possible solution, until someone pointed me in the direction of the "Hacker's Delight". (In this context, "Hacker" refers to a hero who is manipulating code; not a nefarious rapscallion who breaks into other people's computer systems.)

I immediately ordered a copy from Amazon, and took delivery just yesterday as I pen these words. This book is fantastic - I kid you not - on the first page of Chapter 2, for example, I discovered at least five or six capriciously clever tricks that blew my solutions out of the water!

I highly recommend this book.

Absolute essential.......2007-02-28

This book is an absolute essential to the right reader. That right reader is either a low-level coder, a high-level logic designer, or someone who builds tools and libraries for same. In other words, not a lot of people. This is hacking at its bit-level finest, though. If you're among those few, or think you might be, or want a good laugh at the people who are, dig in.

It's good for things like counting the number of 1 bits in a word-length integer (hint: if you count the bits, you're doing it the hard way). It's good for things like fast division by an integer constant, or mod to a constant integer modulus (hint: if you perform division by dividing, you're barking up the wrong tree). If you can look into a 32x32 bit multiplication and see a convolution going on, you're way ahead of the game. The only tricks I know that didn't appear here are A) for purposes that almost no one has or B) for machines that almost no one has.

Warren presents the coolest collection of slimy coding tricks ever collected, with full attention to the number of machine cycles and the compiler-writer's unique needs. I've seen a lot, and this is by far the biggest and coolest collection around. I have two complaints, though, a small one and a really big one. The small one is that the author didn't score a direct bullseye on my somewhat offbeat needs. Well, he never tried to - that's just me griping that he didn't write a different book. The big complaint is that pages, lots of them, just fluttered out of this pricey book and onto the floor. GRRR. This takes nothing away from the content of the book, until some critical page flutters off never to be seen again. Still, if you can keep a rubber band around it, this will be one of the deepest mines of coolness in your uber-geek library.

//wiredweird

Fun, interesting and useful.......2007-01-24

My first introduction to binary operators wizardry was in a 1st year, 1st semester course in Digital Systems at the Technion, IIT. I thought it was fun. While I was trying to write a computer program to compute Karnaugh Maps for me, I run into performance problems, and then some binary hackery helped me get back on the horse.

Since then, whenever I come across some binary trick I write it down with a few examples of usage and sometimes with some reasoning why it works.

Then came "Hacker's Delight" and I felt compelled to buy it.

I wasn't disappointed at all! Not only it contained all of the tricks that I have collected, but also it contains a lot more in depth examples of how these tricks can come in handy when trying to squeeze performance from an implementation or save a few more bytes and bits.

The book also gave me a fresh perspective on the implementation of some well known algorithms with the twist of binary arithmetic. This was very enlightening.

I read the "BASICS" chapter (chapter 2) with a single breath of air, and just couldn't leave it down. Not only it was nice to have all these tricks summarized in one book, but also I liked some of the reasoning and the "so-called" proofs.

Remaining chapters were, as I mentioned before, a fresh look for me on known algorithms. This fresh look was through the glasses of binary arithmetic.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who feels comfortable with binary arithmetic and/or computer organization -- even just for the fun of it!

I'd recommend the book to developers who don't necessarily have a sympathy to this topic, but would like a Copy&Paste solution to some problems they have to tackle.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and I will probably reference it from time to time.

A rich resource for low-level arithmetic tricks.......2007-01-24

The term "hacker" in this book means someone who enjoys making computers do interesting tricks regardless of whether it turns out to be useful, not someone who is intent on circumventing computer security. Plus, how relevant would those kind of tips be coming from a book that was written in 2002? Don't let the author's definition of a hacker fool you, though - the tricks in this book are very useful.

This book is a collection of small programming tricks on various subjects. The presentation is very informal, and the methods use very basic computer math. You should know your binary number system backwards and forwards before you start this book. Either C or assembly language is used to demonstrate the hacks in code form. When assembly language is used, it is that of a fictitious machine that is representative of RISC computers. That is because the tricks are meant to be platform independent.

After disposing of basic arithmetic operations early in the book, the author turns his attention to more complex math problems such as calculating square roots. His discussion of the subject is both complex and simple. First, he explains Newton's method of computing square roots through a page full of equations that require some effort to follow. Then he gives an implementation that requires fewer than twenty lines of C code. This is followed by another method that is longer and more cryptic but executes faster, by using a binary search algorithm. Whether you are interested in the equations or merely need the C code to do your job, these solutions are efficient and elegant.

Other topics addressed include Gray codes, the Hilbert curve, and prime numbers. Gray codes are a method of arranging the integers from 1 to N in a list so that each number can be visited exactly once by flipping only one bit at a time. The Hilbert curve is a similar idea expressed geometrically: a single continuous curve which, given a space divided into a grid of squares, touches every square exactly once and does not cross itself. In each case, both the mathematical discussion and the code to solve the problem are provided.

The chapter on prime numbers is the most challenging mathematically but also one of the most interesting. It starts with a concise overview of various mathematicians' efforts to devise ways of finding prime numbers. The author is one of those people who periodically become fascinated by some problem and devote themselves to learning more about it and searching for a solution. The chapter ends not with the usual code sample, but instead with an invitation to continue the search for interesting solutions to the problem.

Clearly, the author views this book not as a finished collection, but rather as a snapshot of work in progress. After decades of interest-driven research, the author has amassed a collection of studies big enough to fill a book, and it is fortunate for the rest of us that he has written one.

Super Book.......2005-08-15

They don't make them like this anymore. Amid the "Learning XXX in 21 days" and various other computer book for which depth is almost non existent (and are read like eating peanuts), this is a refreshing book that talks about solutions to sometimes common (IMHO) coding problems.
If you enjoy programming gems, or remember that beyond your C code there is a machine that executes your program, this is the book for you. For example, think how would you count the 1 bits in a 32 bit integer - the book has an elegant solution in log(n). Aside from this, the book has about 50 or so problems, with their solutions (and proof).
Bottom line: fine book, worthy to be near my Knoth, R&K and Stroustrup books.

Introduction to the Design and Analysis of Algorithms (2nd Edition)

Average customer rating:

Fantastic intro book
Great introductory text!
Great Introduction to Algorithmic Design
One of the better introductions
An Interestingly Different Approach

Introduction to the Design and Analysis of Algorithms (2nd Edition)
Anany V. Levitin
Manufacturer: Addison Wesley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0321358287

Book Description

Based on a new classification of algorithm design techniques and a clear delineation of analysis methods, Introduction to the Design and Analysis of Algorithms presents the subject in a truly innovative manner. Written in a reader-friendly style, the book encourages broad problem-solving skills while thoroughly covering the material required for introductory algorithms. The author emphasizes conceptual understanding before the introduction of the formal treatment of each technique. Popular puzzles are used to motivate readers' interest and strengthen their skills in algorithmic problem solving. Other enhancement features include chapter summaries, hints to the exercises, and a solution manual. For those interested in learning more about algorithms.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic intro book.......2006-09-27

Even though this book is only a few years old, it seems like a well-worn classic. That is not to say that it is outdated and irrelevant; it is exactly the opposite! While my knowledge of algorithms textbooks isn't encyclopedic, I can say that this book was way ahead of the curve in it's layout. Before it, most books presented a bunch of algorithms with some loose affiliations such as being search algorithms or dealing with graphs. This book groups algorithms into major themes and makes it much easier to learn the fundamentals of algorithm design. There have been a new set of algorithms textbooks coming out as late (Kleinberg and Tardos, Dasgupta et al, etc) that have the same approach as this book because it works so well. Don't miss out!

Great introductory text!.......2006-03-10

For those of you who've always wanted to throw the Cormen text out the window rejoice you finally can! This book is an excellent introduction to algorithms. Though not as thorough as the Cormen text it's orders of magnitude more readable!

Great Introduction to Algorithmic Design.......2005-05-09

I recently finished using this book for a course. I found it to be very well written and the presentation was excellent. Most books on algorithms are hard to read and overly mathematical. This book emphasizes more the textual explanation of algorithms for practical applications and not as much on theoretical proofs etc. The exercises at the end of the chapters strongly reinforce the contents and insightful hints to every exercise are given at the end of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed using this book and found it challenging. Other books I used for reference such as the MIT classic Introduction to Algorithms was also useful but much more difficult to understand initially.

One of the better introductions.......2005-03-12

This book presents the field of algorithm analysis from a different perspective. This book attempts to provide you with enough foundation to not only pick common sorting, searching, etc., algorithms for a problem, but shows you how to design new algorithms if need be. The book is an introduction, so keep that in mind. But the foundation it paves should last you a lifetime.

An Interestingly Different Approach.......2003-06-04

The definitive books on algorithms are widely
acknowledged to be those by Donald Knuth, "The Art of
Computer Programming". Very detailed, and with
voluminous problem sets, they have been the standard
for decades.

Along comes this book with its claim of a different
and complementary classification of the field. The
traditional way is, from a top-down vantage, that at
the highest level, you descend from the root to the
various main problem types. Beneath each problem node
would be subclassifications based on the techniques
used to attack that problem. (I could say "solve", but
that is certainly not the case for some problems.)
This is the most natural classification, because you
often get a problem put in front of you, and you start
from there. Problem-driven.

But what if a method to attack problem A and a method
to attack problem B were very similar? Is there a way
to combine these method nodes? In the problem-driven
tree, not really. So what the author suggests is a
method-driven tree, where problems are descendents of
a method. You regard solutions or research into
problems as instantiations of a particular method.
Sound familiar? You can draw analogies with physics,
if you map the methods into the laws of physics. We
should not follow this too literally. But seen from
this vantage, the author's idea is very reasonable. In
physics, the solutions to a problem are (ideally,
anyway) derived ultimately from the laws of physics.

We should not draw a contrast between the author's
suggestions and the prevailing approach too sharply.
At the research level, a competent analyst should be
aware of different problem areas from which solutions
could be drawn, or to which a solution might be
adapted. As a practical matter, it comes down to the
difference in emphasis for most, rather than a
different worldview.

Customer Reviews:

An okay book!.......2007-05-23

It is just an okay book, not extraordinary in any way. Especially, this is certainly not for the novice in this topic, i.e., it is certainly not a good introductory book. So if you are new to data structures and algorithms, stay away from this book, go for some good introductory book.

For the advanced readers, it is an okay book. Better books are available, e.g., books by Cormen et al. and Robert Sedgewick.

The book is written in a way not very intersting or engaging. The algorithms are not explained in detail. Often things are left unexplained or assumed that the reader already knows it. Algorithms are presented in pseudocode, which causes problems especially for the readers familiar to some particular programming language.

Excellent Book.......2007-05-17

This book explains very clearly the subjects of data structures and algorithms. Its in-depth coverage is very intuitive and easy to follow unlike other literature that is often tedious or esoteric.
The only complaint I have is the choice of the programming language. Pascal is a language of the past. A new edition using C will make this book simply a gem.

A JEWEL.......2006-01-15

Perfect book. Nice and small. You can buy it cheap too, it's old. But it's full of the meat and potatoes, no fluffy Java source code. Sure, it uses Pascal, but it's not that hard to understand Pascal code even if you never programmed in Pascal (me neither). What matters is the discussions behind the scenes. It covers the whole range of what you should know and it's concise. They don't write books like this anymore.

A classic text book on Data Structures........2005-05-19

I believe two books make a classic collection in data structures - one was the data structures book by sartaj sahni (his first edition book many years ago - I haven't looked at his recent books). That was the book I had to study when I was an undergrad student. Now I was entrusted with the task of teaching Data Structures and after looking at several books, this is the one I chose (may be because it comes most close to the style of teaching using psuedo-pascal that I grew up with).

I believe psuedo languages are the best way to learn concepts of any computer science area without getting bogged down in the nitty gritty of a language's syntax and semantics. I found the problems at the end of the chapters to be thoughtful and not extremely hard for undergraduate students. This book also goes into brief mathematical aspects of analysing the complexity of algorithms where necessary. The mathematical analysis is usually the part that most undergrad students moan and groan about, but they better get used to it IMO, if they wish to elevate themselves from the ranks of "a programmer" to an software / algorithm designer.

I have to agree that this book can be extremely hard for the weaker students in the class who have never had any programming or basic college algebra exposure. For all others, this book should be great.

The best introduction to the field - a pleasure to read.......2002-02-10

A textbook by Aho/Hopcroft/Ullman is sort of a guarantee of quality -
and this one is no exception. These people are among the greatest
researchers and teachers in Computer Science, and this book is a
great opportunity to 'learn from the masters'.

As an introduction to the fascinating field of Data Structures and
Algorithms, this is perhaps the best textbook you'll find out there.
Starting with the basics, the authors develop the concepts in a
natural manner. Array, lists and stacks soon give way to binary trees,
heaps and then more advanced data structures. All data structures are
introduced with proper motivation in terms of the kind of problems
that they are useful in solving.

The basic algorithms in searching, sorting, and graphs are then presented
in detail, followed by a chapter on algorithm analysis techniques, and
one on design paradigms such as dynamic programming, backtracking, divide
and conquer, greedy approach, and local search. The book ends with chapters
data structures and algorithms for external storage and memory management.

This is a textbook, and therefore you can expect a fair amount of maths
in the analysis of algorithms, without which you can only do hand-waving.
All algorithms are explained, with detailed examples and illustrations -
this is one of the easiest books to follow in theoretical computer science.

All algorithms are presented in pseudocode, which makes it easier to
understand things at an abtract level without getting bogged down in
language specific technical details, and the pseudocode is very clear
and concise, making it an easy task to adapt it to any given language.

An additional plus-point is its size - weighing in at less than 450
pages, this is a 'backpack friendly' book which you can easily carry
around, unlike many others on the subject.

The only caveat is that the book is almost 20 years old, so you won't
find the more recent topics like red-black trees, skip lists etc.
I'd suggest using this book for an introduction to the basics, with the
book by Cormen et al (if you want the maths) or Sedgewick (if you don't
want the maths) as excellent supplements as well as advanced references.

Book Description

Michael Goodrich and Roberto Tamassia, authors of the successful, Data Structures and Algorithms in Java, 2/e, have written Algorithm Engineering, a text designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the design, implementation and analysis of computer algorithms and data structures from a modern perspective. This book offers theoretical analysis techniques as well as algorithmic design patterns and experimental methods for the engineering of algorithms.
Market: Computer Scientists; Programmers.

Customer Reviews:

Egh! Good science bad english.......2006-10-25

I'm a grad. student using this book, and understanding the written language amounts to same sensation as you would get during root canal. While examples are concise, pseudo-code is excellent, despite the few actual examples in Java, it covers vast range of topics rather well. But for crying out loud, hire an editor for the next edition that will break down paragraph long sentences and introduce some readability to the text! For that reason I tend to gravitate to my undergrad books for my current studies.

An excellent textbook.......2005-03-15

After researching a variety of alternatives, I settled upon using Algorithm Design by Goodrich and Tamassia to teach a junior-level algorithms course and the experience has been quite positive.

While instructor material grows a bit sparse in the last half or third of the book, it's still quite useful. The slides are great and many of the problems have solutions available. Moreover, the solutions tend to be correct (I've only found two mistakes, which may be covered in the up-to-date errata).

The layout of the sections and chapters is quite natural and easy to adapt to your own course, although the last third of the book is essentially an assortment of topics that didn't fit in anywhere else. I would advise bringing some of those topics in to the course early on as diversions from the main material, which admittedly can get a little dry.

For the most part, the book is well written with interesting and adequete end of chapter problems. There are relatively few Java-based examples, but we skipped over them anyhow -- the pseudo-code is quite acceptable. Goodrich and Tamassia give a broad survey of topics, but cover them in enough depth and with enough rigor for an undergraduate course where CLR(S) would be overkill. I recommend it.

A good introduction text to algorithms.......2002-12-18

I would not consider this book as the ultimate book for algorithms as the title suggests. :-) However, it is a very readable book, and filled with brief, but concise observations. Do not get me wrong. This book also has very detailed explanations of fundamental data structures and algorithms.

Also, the best part of the book is that it lists good references for further readings. I loved this book. I would suggest this book to others. Math hints at the back of the books are useful, and some excercises are quite brain challenging. I think it is a great practice for students, but it is not so fun when students get it for assignments. :-)

Good Fundamentals.......2002-07-01

There are many good books with this title or similar ones. This is probably one of the better ones for your bookshelf and for use in academia. The examples are written in Java (a current language) and they are easy to read. The presentation is clean and illustrative. The authors have a good track record for expertise and papers published, and you get the sense that it is more real-world than most similar books.

An Introduction to Parallel Computing: Design and Analysis of Algorithms, Second Edition

Average customer rating:

Too many mistakes.
Worst text book ever written..
Better read Journals than this book
Great book, but...
A sloppily written book

An Introduction to Parallel Computing: Design and Analysis of Algorithms, Second Edition
Ananth Grama , George Karypis , Vipin Kumar , and Anshul Gupta
Manufacturer: Addison Wesley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0201648652

Book Description

This book provides a basic, in-depth look at techniques for the design and analysis of parallel algorithms and for programming them on commercially available parallel platforms. Principles of parallel algorithms design and different parallel programming models are both discussed, with extensive coverage of MPI, POSIX threads, and Open MP. This second edition includes two new chapters on the principles of parallel programming and programming paradigms, as well as new information on portability. For programmers wanting to gain proficiency in all aspects of parallel programming.

Customer Reviews:

Too many mistakes........2006-02-20

I agree with the other reviewers who have said that this book is sloppy. There are just far too many mistakes for a 2nd edition book; very discouraging in an Addison-Wesley print.

The content is OK, and fairly thorough, but as another reviewer noted, there's considerable handwaving going on in some of the explanations.

Bottom line: a cleaned-up 3rd edition could be a very good textbook. Too bad I'm stuck with the 2nd edition :(

Worst text book ever written.........2005-12-02

This book is extremely poorly written. The authors glaze over complex equations and magically come up with answers that don't make any sense. For example, to anyone having taken a prior architecture course the author's are completely wrong in the majority of cache performance analysis done early on in the book. Problems associated with that topic force the reader to dumb-down quite a bit to achieve their "expected" answer.

The user is left in most cases to derive the bizarre math that is involved through the authors' hand-waiving.
One of my personal favorites is from a formula derivation given on page 340, the sequence follows from the text as:

n^2=Ktwnp,
n=Ktwp,
n^2=K^2tw^2p^2, <--what, did I miss something here?
W=K^2tw^2p^2,

On top of that there are numerous typos in the sparse visual examples that do exist. Thus it makes it even more confounding to read through.

If you are evaluating the text for a possible parallel computing course. Don't waste your time or money with this text, your students will thank you. If you are student looking to take a class that uses this text...dropping a brick on your foot might be more enjoyable. If you think I'm a disgruntled student trying to seek revenge, I'm not. I did fine in the course, and I just want to make sure that no one else gets blind-sided by the non-sensical garbage that is this text. If there was a negative rating...this would be below 1 star.

Better read Journals than this book.......2005-11-29

I bought the book a few months ago as textbook for my semester class in high performance computing. After reading the first 3 chapters I realized that this book is a waste. The examples are only solved partially, a lot of jargons (they should have put the terminology in separate table, maybe).

I was hoping, by reading the book I'd learn something essential and got the basic philosophy of high-performance computing/parallel processing. Instead, I got more confused than before reading it! (I used to be real-time software programmer, so the field is not totally new to me). The authors tried to put everything in this small 633-pages book.

Even my professor said it is useless to read the book and refer us to other papers [Robertazzi's papers], and yes, these IEEE/ACM papers are much clearly explained and understood! I also found that a website is much better explaining the concept. Another book is also I guess better: "Fundamentals of Parallel Processing" by Harry F. Jordan and Gita Alaghband.

Don't waste your money on this book.

Great book, but..........2004-04-08

Yes, this is definitely a good book. The discussions on some of the topics are in depth. Parallel algorithm designs are considered from several different angles (mostly from theoretical performance's point of view). One definitely has to get some backgrounds in algorithms before one can digest the contents of this book, thus I recommend this book only for juniors, seniors, graduate students. From the theoretical point of view this book is great, but from the "experimental" point of view is not. It lacks examples and exercises on doing the theory in the actual parallel computers. Thus you have to develop your own MPI (or openMP) understanding and apply it to the topics discussed in this book.

A sloppily written book.......2004-01-18

The content should be accessible to any graduate student but the sloppy writing style has made it unnecessarily difficult to read. Out of the many poorly written places, here is an example. In section 6.3.5 on page 248, it wrote, "Recall from section 9.3.1..." But I am only in chapter 6, how can I recall something from chapter 9. I then checked chapter 9 and found out that the forward reference was not a typo.

Book Description

Ideal for graduate and senior undergraduate level courses in computer arithmetic and advanced digital design, Computer Arithmetic: Algorithms and Hardware Designs provides a balanced, comprehensive treatment of computer arithmetic, covering topics in arithmetic unit design and circuit implementation that complement the architectural and algorithmic speedup techniques used in high-performance computer architecture and parallel processing. Using a unified and consistent framework, the text begins with number representation and proceeds through basic arithmetic operations, floating-point arithmetic, and function evaluation methods. Later chapters cover broad design and implementation topics--including techniques for high-throughput, low-power, and fault-tolerant arithmetic--and also feature brief case studies. An indispensable resource for instruction, professional development, and research in digital computer arithmetic, Computer Arithmetic: Algorithms and Hardware Designs combines broad coverage of the underlying theories of computer arithmetic with numerous examples of practical designs, worked-out examples, and a large collection of meaningful problems. Features: DT Divided into 28 lecture-size chapters DT Emphasizes both the underlying theories of computer arithmetic and actual hardware designs DT Carefully links computer arithmetic to other subfields of computer engineering DT Includes over 450 end-of-chapter problems ranging in complexity from simple exercises to mini-projects DT Incorporates many examples of practical designs DT Uses consistent standardized notation throughout DT Instructor's manual includes solutions to text problems, additional exercises, test questions, and enlarged versions of figures and charts

Customer Reviews:

this book is not for people who want to learn anything. .......2005-05-06

I just finished a course that used this book and I was so disgusted with the book that I felt a review was necessary. It seems that this book was written for people who already have a background in computer algorithms. The examples, where rarely provided, leave out basic information necessary to comprehend the material. The author uses notation and figures without explaning how to read them. I learned almost nothing form this book and would not suggest it to anyone. In fact, if this author has written any other books, I would stay away from them as well.

Very superficial look at computer arithmetic.......2003-10-08

Although the author does a good job at explaining arithmetic in the areas of RNS and SD arithmetic, the other topics are done very superficially. The book is a good reference, but you can find better books on understanding computer arithmetic.

The WORST book there is!.......2002-11-06

I think 2 stars rating for this book are more than it deserves.
I've bought many technical books and learned them on my own but
I've never seen a book that is so bad. Having this as class text
book and coupling with a not so good instructor, you really gets
it coming. PLEASE, STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK!
there many good books on this subject out there, don't torture
yourself and waste money on this terrible book. The bottom line is, the
author tries to make subjects more complicated than they
really are.

An excellent book for the ASIC architect........2002-05-02

I found this book to be extremely helpful in my every-day work. No where else have I found such a concise and accurate description of hardware-friendly number systems and arithmetic algorithms. It's the first place I go when I have a an arithmetic-intensive algorithm to architect. Simply put, my designs got better after I got this book.

Overly complex and not many examples of material.......2000-03-30

Not a very good book in my opinion, I will admit I am just getting started into it but even in the number representation chapters he takes very simple material and makes it very complicated. Radix number representation is not complex but if I was trying to learn from this book I would be very intimidated. (and for the review complimenting the circles explaining 1 and 2's compliment, those aren't some original idea those circles are in pretty much every explanation of the topic) Needless to say I am somewhat scared of whats ahead, if the author has made simple material like number representation complex, I can't imagine how more complex material will be covered. -And my big point is that very few examples are given in the book. And then ( the cardinal sin of engineering/science books) complex questions are asked in the book with no real reference in the material. This book was most likely put together from lecture notes and if I had a professor on hand to answer questions that would be okay, but as far as I know they run for over 50K a year and I can't afford that. Avoid

Book Description

The presence of uncertainty in a system description has always been a critical issue in control. Moving on from earlier stochastic and robust control paradigms, the main objective of this book is to introduce the reader to the fundamentals of probabilistic methods in the analysis and design of uncertain systems. Using so-called "randomized algorithms", this emerging area of research guarantees a reduction in the computational complexity of classical robust control algorithms and in the conservativeness of methods like H-infinity control.

Features:

â€¢ self-contained treatment explaining randomized algorithms from their genesis in the principles of probability theory to their use for robust analysis and controller synthesis;

â€¢ comprehensive treatment of sample generation, including consideration of the difficulties involved in obtaining independent and identically distributed samples;

â€¢ applications of randomized algorithms in congestion control of high-speed communications networks and the stability of quantized sampled-data systems.

Randomized Algorithms for Analysis and Control of Uncertain Systems will be of certain interest to control theorists concerned with robust and optimal control techniques and to all control engineers dealing with system uncertainties.

The present book is a very timely contribution to the literature. I have no hesitation in asserting that it will remain a widely cited reference work for many years.

M. Vidyasagar

Introduction to Parallel Computing: Design and Analysis of Parallel Algorithms

Average customer rating:

Just great
Essential 4 any prospective parallel computing professional
Good book on parallel computing
Great details and insightful

Introduction to Parallel Computing: Design and Analysis of Parallel Algorithms
Vipin Kumar , Ananth Grama , Anshul Gupta , and George Karpis
Manufacturer: Benjamin-Cummings Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Textbook Binding

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ASIN: 0805331700

Customer Reviews:

Just great.......2002-04-25

Excellent introduction to the field, specially for the beginner. There is no other book as clear and concise as this one. If you need an introduction to parallel computing / programming, buy the second edition of this book now!

Essential 4 any prospective parallel computing professional.......2000-11-30

I bought this book when I was a 2nd grade CS student. I planned to start my research project in supercomputing field. So I decided to study the aspects of parallel computing starting by its concepts and programming. As a programmer I found that I would need the general view before coding. Kumar's book is great in which it gives you generalized overview of hardware and software architectures. He and his contributors don't take care of what system nor language you're using. Instead, they want you to learn Parallel Programming. Scientific and non-numerical algorithms are overviewed and explained mathematically. They prove everything they state by using mathematics. I don't know any better way. Do you? It's worth every penny.

Good book on parallel computing.......2000-10-26

This book is a very good one for the parallel computing fields. The most interesting parts of the book to me are the parallel alogrithms design & analysis. The ideas are explained clearly and the exercises are nice too. I would like to recommend this book to all my friends who are interested in parallel computing.

Great details and insightful.......1998-10-28

This one is must for someone who has needs an introductory course for parallel computing. It dealt with the fundamental of parallel computing in terms of algorithms decide.

Hard Real- Time Computing Systems: Predictable Scheduling Algorithms and Applications (Real-Time Systems Series)

Average customer rating:

Academic value but impractical for implementation
Provides practical hard RT techniques based on theory.

Hard Real- Time Computing Systems: Predictable Scheduling Algorithms and Applications (Real-Time Systems Series)
G.C. Buttazzo
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0387231374

Book Description

Hard Real-Time Computing Systems: Predictable Scheduling Algorithms and Applications is a basic treatise on real-time computing, with particular emphasis on predictable scheduling algorithms. It introduces the fundamental concepts of real-time computing, illustrates the most significant results in the field, and provides the essential methodologies for designing predictable computing systems which can be used to support critical control applications.

This volume serves as a textbook for advanced level courses on the topic. Each chapter provides basic concepts, which are followed by algorithms that are illustrated with concrete examples, figures and tables. Exercises are included with each chapter and solutions are given at the end of the book. The book also provides an excellent reference for those interested in real-time computing for designing and/or developing predictable control applications.

Customer Reviews:

Academic value but impractical for implementation.......2006-11-08

Those of us who have been developing dedicated real-time applications need a text to teach less experienced engineers how to decompose real-time problems for effective implementation. This is not that text.
The book is well written. But the author is obsessed with scheduling algorithms and methods for estimating their execution times. This is essentially useless for two reasons: (1) the actual execution times are best controlled by effective application decomposition and (2) real-time applications are nearly always unfinished works; they usually under go numerous enhancements and revisions until they are no longer used at all. As any implementation is revised all the timing considerations must be reworked; we do not have time in the schedule nor money to afford this.
The author gives only scant consideration to determining when to poll for I/O or to use interrupt handlers and driver tasks; he offers no advice for making such determinations. The author does mention semaphores but does not discuss the numerous types of semaphores nor does he consider when/how one should use which kind of semaphore or what alternatives are available. There are similar deficiencies in the consideration of messaging, signals, events, timers, but only scheduling is considered. All of these constructs and their proper/improper use have profound influence on the efficiency of the algorithms implemented.
If you already have determined the "best" application decomposition and you already know how to use the various real-time methods to implement that decomposition and you will not add enhancements in the future and you have verified that your implementation will serve its purpose apart from timing considerations and you have lots of time in your schedule and plenty of money, why then you may investigate algorithm timing.
Still, it is a beautifully written book and a pleasure to read.

Provides practical hard RT techniques based on theory........2000-09-02

Highly recommended. This is the book that I loan to software engineers, computer science new grads (and sometimes not so new grads), that don't understand what hard real-time is, don't understand that it matters, and most importantly, don't understand that real-time performance can be predicted by the appropriate choice of a scheduling policy. By understanding the concepts in this book, the real-time system architect is provided a variety of techniques that can be used to design a system whose timing performance can be analyzed, predicted and guaranteed by proof.

Book Description

This book provides professionals with a large selection of algorithms, kernels and solutions ready for implementation and suitable for standard pattern discovery problems in fields such as bioinformatics, text analysis and image analysis. It also serves as an introduction for students and researchers to the growing field of kernel-based pattern analysis, demonstrating with examples how to handcraft an algorithm or a kernel for a new specific application, and covering all the necessary conceptual and mathematical tools to do so.

Customer Reviews:

Sloppy.......2006-11-30

Sloppy language, sloppy definitions, sloppy proofs.
Constant repetitions do not add any clarity either.

Nice introduction, but no more.......2006-08-11

Well, at first I was petrified to find a book that sounded like it deeply explores the subject of kernel methods. But all in all, it did not quite achieve what I hoped for. As a practical approach, when it comes to implementation, it serves nicely as a reference. The deeper mathematical roots of kernels (especially when it comes to measure theory and functional analysis) are not dealt with at all or just scratched at the very surface. The notation is sometimes awkward, mentioning for example the representation of an object in a given vector space with respect to the basis. And: Too much copied and pasted from the former book about SVMs. Basically, reading papers of Carmeli, Aronszajn and others will give you a much deeper insight into the subject.

coherent and accessible reference, ready-to-use algorithms.......2005-02-22

This work presents a coherent overview of an important field in machine learning. The unifying framework of kernel methods has proven state of the art results and the community has been waiting for a book like this to make both theory and practice of kernel methods accesssible for readers of all different backgrounds (researchers, students, practioners from both academia and industry, ...).

It is theoretically well-founded, the resulting algorithms are well-explained and made accessible for practioners by providing pseudo-code and online, ready-to-use matlab code.

This book nicely complements the previous, yellow book, written by the same authors. Indeed, after "getting into the field" by reading the accessible introduction to support vector machines (SVMs), it was clear to me that SVMs was only an example of a signifcantly larger framework, i.e., kernel methods. The blue book is the reference book about that larger framework I have been waiting for since then. I particularly like the way the book is set up, making clear the modular, flexible approach in kernel methods.

A Useful Reference on Kernel Methods.......2005-02-22

The book is divided into 3 parts. The theory is all in part I,
the rest of the book is a cook-book with plenty of matlab code.
The website contains most of the same code + data online. Readable, complete.

THE reference work.......2005-02-22

This book will, without doubt, become THE reference work in kernel methods for pattern recognition, and a must read for pattern recognition researchers and practitioners in general.

It's built up in a nicely modular, accessible and didactive way, helping the reader understand thoroughly what kernel methods are all about and importantly, how to use them. This makes the book very useful as a cook book for practitioners, as well as a text book for students.

The book covers all the relevant topics in the state of the art of kernel methods, a field of research in which the authors have been a driving force since the beginning. Even so, they managed to resist the temptation from squeezing in the(ir) latest (potentially still unstable) results, which greatly enhances the timelessness of the book.

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