I am honored and privileged to write the foreword for the fourth edition of this most important book in computer architecture. In the first edition, Gordon Bell, my first industry mentor, predicted the book’s central position as the definitive text for computer architecture and design. He was right. I clearly remember the excitement generated by the introduction of this work. Rereading it now, with significant extensions added in the three new editions, has been a pleasure all over again. No other work in computer architecture—frankly, no other work I have read in any field—so quickly and effortlessly takes the reader from ignorance to a breadth and depth of knowledge.
