Using this CD

Welcome to the Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, 4th Edition Companion CD.
This page contains some information to help you get started using the CD.

What you will find on the CD

System Requirements

PDF Viewer

The CD material includes PDF documents that you can read with a PDF viewer such as Adobe, Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Recent versions of Adobe Reader for some platforms are included on the CD.

HTML Browser

The navigation framework on this CD is delivered in HTML and JavaScript. It is recommended that you install the latest version of your favorite HTML browser to view this CD. The content has been verified under Windows XP with the following browsers:

under Mac OS X (Panther) with the following browsers:

and under Mandriva Linux 2006 with the following browsers:

The content is designed to be viewed in a browser window that is at least 720 pixels wide. You may find the content does not display well if your display is not set to at least 1024x768 pixel resolution.

Operating System

This CD can be used under any operating system that includes an HTML browser and a PDF viewer. This includes Windows, Mac OS, and most Linux and Unix systems.

Locating Content

The navigation sidebar contains buttons to access the content of this CD.

The Search page provides a search engine for locating content containing keywords. Click on the Search sidebar button to go to the search page.

Since the content of this CD is delivered primarily in Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format), you can search within individual documents using the search features of your PDF viewer. For more information on searching within a PDF file, see the help menu within your PDF viewer.

Page Numbering

The printed book and this CD use a numbering scheme that allows you to locate content quickly.

Pages in chapters are numbered sequentially (1, 2, 3, and so on). Wherever you find a simple page number or page range (for example, “page 203” or “134-145”) you will know that this reference refers to a page or pages in the printed book.

Page numbers in appendices are prefixed with the appendix letter (A-1, A-2, A-3, and so on). Appendices A through C are included in the printed book, and Appendices D through K are on this CD.

Copying the CD content to your hard drive

You can copy the content of the CD to your computer's hard drive to make accessing the content faster and to avoid tying up your CD drive. You will need approximately 145MB of free space on your hard drive to copy the material.

On Windows systems, double-click on the My Computer icon on the desktop. Then right-click on the icon for the CD drive (usually D:) and select Open from the popup menu. Select all of the items on the CD, then select the Edit->Copy menu command. Now click the Back button and navigate to the folder on your hard drive where you want to place the content. Select the Edit->Paste menu command. When the content has been copied, you can double-click on the index.html file in the folder on your hard drive to access the content.

On Mac systems, use the finder to open the folder on your hard drive where you want to place the content. Then double-click on the CAAQA4E icon representing the CD on the desktop. Select all of the items on the CD and drag them into the folder on your hard drive. When the content has been copied, you can double-click on the index.html file in the folder on your hard drive to access the content.

Known Issues

Issues reported as of August 2006

  1. Clicking on the Companion Site button displays the companion web page, but then clicking on the browser's Back button does not return to the previous page. The previous page can be displayed by choosing it from the browser's drop-down history menu or by clicking the appropriate button in the navigation bar.
  2. In the Appendices page, each Section title links to the page in the PDF document containing the start of the section. Using Firefox and Adobe Acrobat 7.0, the linked page is displayed correctly. Using Firefox and Adobe Reader 7.0, the linked page is displayed when the document is first opened. However, if another link is subsequently followed to that document, the previous position in the document is remembered. Using Internet Explorer, the page numbers in the links appear to be ignored. The first page is displayed the first time the document is opened, and subsequently, the previous position is remembered.
  3. In the Search page, if a search result is a link to a PDF file on the CD, and that page has been previously displayed using Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader, the previous position in the document is remembered. Following the link displays the page at that position. If the file has not previously been displayed, or if another PDF reader is used, the first page of the file is displayed. In either case, the page displayed is not necessarily the location in the PDF file containing the search keyword(s).

Acknowledgments