Acknowledgments

Many professional colleagues, former students, and associates have cumulatively contributed to our understanding of computer architecture and thereby to the making of this book. We appreciate their help and encouragement.

Some of the teaching examples in our book developed out of ideas from Professor Thomas L. Naps (University of Wisconsin Oshkosh), author or co-author of several computer science texts.

We wish to thank Walter Triebel (formerly of Intel Corporation, now at Fairleigh Dickinson University) for first suggesting a project to prepare this book, Richard Eckhouse (University of Massachusetts Boston) for hearty endorsement, Barry Levine (School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham) for professional hospitality and enthusiastic encouragement, Joey Lawrance for energetic advocacy of Linux systems, and Fred Bartels for discussions of pedagogy from elementary school through postgraduate levels.

Mike Perman, a regional representative for Prentice-Hall^®, kindly provided several reference books used during the project.

We appreciate having had remote access to two Itanium-based systems, running different releases of Linux, through the Test Drive program of Compaq^® Corporation managed by Tim Regan.

We especially thank Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) for extensive assistance, without which we could not have proceeded.

Early encouragement from Mark Gibson (HP Laboratories) led to crucially important access arrangements: first, with Brian Lynn for secure remote access to a testbed Itanium-based system at HP Laboratories with both the GNU software development tools and the Intel assembler, C/C++ compiler, and FORTRAN compiler; and second, with Dan Marcek (HP University Affairs) for indirect access to an Itanium workstation with HPUX software that had been contributed to the laboratory of Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau at the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Later, Dan Marcek also arranged contact with Rick Hank, who provided tests of certain programs and commands using prerelease HPUX software. Dan Marcek, Bob Kennedy, and Vicki Niccum ultimately made available an Itanium workstation to Lawrence University in direct support of our book project. Rick Hank ensured that we had all Itanium development software available from HP.

Initial inquiries to Pat Pekary (publisher of HP Books) led to further contacts in several directions: with her colleague Walter Bruce, who became our liaison as regards our book being sponsored in the HP Professional Books series; with Jill Harry and Mark Taub, who became our principal contacts at Prentice Hall PTR and who recommended our project for a publishing arrangement; and with several Hewlett-Packard technical professionals for whom we have developed deep respect and to whom we owe many thanks indeed.

Dale Morris responded to our outlined book proposal with some leads to useful technical information and with detailed comments that reinforced our confidence in the viability of an Itanium book project. Whenever we have had questions or concerns, Dale and other Hewlett-Packard professionals have always responded courteously, promptly, and with interest in the success of our endeavor. We have received graciously offered and very timely help from Eddie Gornish, Sverre Jarp, Peter Markstein, Marcel Moolenaar, and David Mosberger.

Jim Hull (HP Laboratories) ably assisted with a meticulous technical review for the publisher and forwarded copious suggestions to the authors, most of which we took on board. Donna Cullen-Dolce coordinated production work on the book for the publisher and coached the authors through the many steps of the modern publishing process.