Machine and Assembly Language Programming of the PDP-11 (Digital Equipment Corp) by Arthur Gill (1978)

Arthur Gill's textbook is a foundational guide to understanding and programming the PDP-11 family of minicomputers, one of the most influential architectures in computing history. The book is structured to take a beginner from basic machine-level concepts all the way to advanced systems programming techniques, with a strong emphasis on clarity, practical examples, and hands-on exercises. The early chapters introduce the PDP-11's architecture, instruction formats, registers, memory organization, and the philosophy behind DEC's design. Gill explains how machine instructions are encoded, how addressing modes work, and how data moves through the system. These chapters build the reader's fluency with the PDP-11's elegant and flexible addressing modes - register, deferred, autoincrement, autodecrement, index, and their deferred variants - which are central to writing efficient assembly code. Mid-book chapters focus on assembler usage, symbolic notation, program structure, and the mechanics of writing, assembling, and debugging code. Gill provides numerous examples showing how machine instructions translate to assembly language and how the assembler resolves symbols, relocatable addresses, and program sections. The text also covers immediate addressing, program counter behavior, and position-independent code techniques. Exercises throughout the book reinforce concepts with realistic programming tasks, error-analysis problems, and multi-module linking scenarios. The appendices supply reference tables, programming style notes, and quick-lookup lists for instructions and addressing modes. Overall, Gill's book serves as both a teaching text and a technical reference, ideal for students, engineers, and historians studying classic minicomputer architecture. It captures the PDP-11's importance as a teaching platform and provides a complete, structured pathway to mastering its machine and assembly language. Hard cover edition without dustjacket. 191 pages. Dimensions: 7" by 9.5". Published by Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood, NJ Copyright 1978, 5th or later Printing, 1978. White binding. 2 Pound Media Shipping Rate. Combine items and SAVE! Genre(s): Computer Science / Science & Technology / Education-College. (B124).…