About the Hardware Bible

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 The Winn L. Rosch Hardware Bible is a book about PC hardware, everything from memory bits to entire systems. It assumes you have no knowledge about computers but that you do have the ability and willingness to learn. It does not assume you're a dummy. Rather, it is written with the viewpoint that you are a human being with normal intelligence, even literate, but have a hole in your knowledge when it comes to personal computers. The Hardware Bible attempts to fill that hole. The book starts out with the fundamentals then adds the details with accuracy and depth. And it does a pretty good job of it. It has been used by Intel Corporation for training (and served as the basis of a video-based seminar) and has even been used as a college textbook. It is also a book with an attitude—the prevailing attitude is that technical subjects don't have to be dry. Sometimes irreverent, often off-beat, the Bible is also a fun read.

The Hardware Bible is meant to serve multiple purposes. It is an introduction to technology. Read it, and you'll know more than the salespeople trying to get you to buy computer features you don't need. Once you know about computers, you'll find even more value to the Hardware Bible. It is a reference that gives accurate information about the theory and operation of personal computers. Its many charts provide details about the signals used by every common PC connection. It also pins down dates and names that are sometimes glossed over or forgotten. It is a standard source for journalists writing about technology. It is a book that should be in every computer library, even every library. What the heck, you should keep a copy under your pillow.

The current edition is over 400,000 words long. It is, in fact, too long to comfortably fit between the covers of a normal book. Consequently, marginally dated materials and matters that are out of the PC mainstream appear in electronic form on the CD which accompanies the book at no additional charge. This CD contains every word of the paper version of the book, the overflow material, and several appendices.

Unlike many computer books that wear the names of people prominent in the personal computer field, the Winn L. Rosch Hardware Bible has no ghost writers. Every word of the original manuscript was written by the author. The original illustrations were drawn by the author. Although they have been reworked by other artists to conform with the publisher's print style, many are used in their original form in the electronic edition of the book (on the bonus CD accompanying the book) and on these web pages.