Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manuals

Jim Carlock

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Oct 8, 2009, 11:32:23 AM10/8/09

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I start this discussion about the Intel Architecture Software
Developer's Manuals. Does anyone know if Intel stopped shipping
these books in paperback form? I ordered a set last night and I
noticed they mentioned that the full set comes on CD (I assume
that they all now come in that PDF format and no longer come in
a paperback format). Has anyone ordered one of the CDs yet?

I placed an order for one yesterday.

The URL for the Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manuals:

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/manuals/

The reason I ask, because I want to know what all comes on that
CD.

--
Jim Carlock

robert...@munged.microcosmotalk.com

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Oct 8, 2009, 5:06:25 PM10/8/09

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On Oct 8, 10:32=A0am, "Jim Carlock" <jcarl...@MUNGED.microcosmotalk.com>
wrote:

Well, that page specifically states that eight particular manuals are
on the CD, I'm going to guess that it contains those eight manuals.
And it then provides links for downloading each of them. Why not do
that? That's what everyone else does. The last set I downloaded and
put up on our internal web server was about 26MB total (end of
August).

I don't know why Intel would sell printed copies, these get updated
every few months.

Rod Pemberton

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Oct 8, 2009, 7:41:05 PM10/8/09

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"robert...@yahoo.com" <robert...@MUNGED.microcosmotalk.com> wrote in
message news:4ace5451$0$4986$9a6e...@unlimited.newshosting.com...

>
> I don't know why Intel would sell printed copies, these get updated
> every few months.
>

The following is of the same spirit as that OT comment. If they're charging
money, then probably to recover some costs of producing them... It's also
easy for a company to buy or request a CD and distribute the manuals in
electronic form to an entire programming department at once. Intel likely
has a small department of people, technical writers, they pay the salaries
of, who get to run around and pester the designers, engineers, and
programmers for the information to produce the manuals. City and University
libraries probably prefer hard copies. I used to prefer hard copies, i.e.,
books. We've all spent years of schooling using textbooks... Currently, I
prefer .pdf's, if I can get them, and if they aren't "scanned image" .pdf's
but the searchable text versions. If I can't get a document in .pdf or
ASCII text, I really, really, don't want it in some other electronic form.
I've gone to great lengths to find some manuals as .pdf's. I don't want
troff/nroff/groff. I don't want PostScript, MS Word .doc, etc. The other
forms are just too inconvenient. I'll take hard copy instead, or .html as
an absolute last resort.

Rod Pemberton

BGB / cr88192

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Oct 8, 2009, 9:36:25 PM10/8/09

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"robert...@yahoo.com" <robert...@MUNGED.microcosmotalk.com> wrote in
message news:4ace5451$0$4986$9a6e...@unlimited.newshosting.com...
>

I remember before, one could buy printed copies, but they were rather
expensive (I have long since forgotten how much., and this was long ago so
it is unlikely the price would still be the same anyways..).

however, one could download them for free, and this seems good enough.

if one really wants a printed copy, well then, there is always paper and
toner, and one can gain a little experience with the art of bookbinding...

or such...

Frank Kotler

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Oct 8, 2009, 10:12:00 PM10/8/09

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BGB / cr88192 wrote:

...

> I remember before, one could buy printed copies, but they were rather
> expensive (I have long since forgotten how much., and this was long ago so
> it is unlikely the price would still be the same anyways..).

Not too long ago (2005?), they were giving them away free - free
shipping too! Hard to believe, but people were reporting actually
getting them. I think this was on an "as available" basis. May no longer
be true, but haunt their site - might come around again...

Best,
Frank

BGB / cr88192

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Oct 9, 2009, 3:19:04 AM10/9/09

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"Frank Kotler" <fbko...@MUNGED.microcosmotalk.com> wrote in message
news:4ace9bf0$0$5669$9a6e...@unlimited.newshosting.com...

I was remembering maybe late 1990s or early 2000s.
I hadn't really looked into it since then...

oh well, me and the great 'x86 interpreter' writing experience.
have now added a decent chunk of SSE support, and part of SSE2 as well.

so, likely:
fake SSE will likely be much faster than fake x87;
fake SSE will be faster than fake SSE2 (or, more correctly, 'SS' and 'PS'
operations will be faster than 'SD' and 'PD').

nevermind that the whole interpreter will likely be rather slow...

> Best,
> Frank
>

Jerry Coffin

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Oct 12, 2009, 4:24:31 PM10/12/09

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In article <4ace9bf0$0$5669$9a6e...@unlimited.newshosting.com>,
fbko...@MUNGED.microcosmotalk.com says...

[ ... ]

> Not too long ago (2005?), they were giving them away free - free
> shipping too! Hard to believe, but people were reporting actually
> getting them. I think this was on an "as available" basis. May no longer
> be true, but haunt their site - might come around again...

When AMD's processors were clearly faster, it was all free, and if
you asked nicely, they probably would have thrown in dancing girls
just because you were nice enough to look at it.

Roughly 17 seconds after Intel's processors were faster than AMD's,
the policy became more like "send us a signed non-disclosure
agreement, your credit report, life's history, rights to your first-
born child, and if it arrives at exactly 9:17 AM on the day of the
second full moon of the month, we _might_ consider your request!"

--
Later,
Jerry.