Computer Organization and Architecture: Themes and Variations

Alan Clements studied Electronics at the University of Sussex. He was awarded a Ph.D. at Loughborough University in equalizers for digital data transmission in 1976. During the 1970s when literature on microcomputer design was comparatively rare, Dr. Clements wrote one of the first books in this area, The Principles of Computer Hardware. It was one of the first undergraduate texts to cover the whole spectrum of computer hardware at an introductory level, with topics ranging from Boolean algebra to peripherals that measure rotational velocity. In the 1980s Dr. Clements wrote a definitive text on microprocessor systems design which featured Motorola processors. Motorola honored Dr. Clements by endowing him with a personal chair at Teesside. Following his earlier successes Dr. Clements has become increasingly interested in the problems of teaching computer architecture and involved with education. In 2001 he became chair of the Computer Society's international student competition, CSIDC and in the same year received a National Teaching Fellowship in the UK, the UK's highest award for higher education. In 2009 he was elected Fellow of the IEEE for contributions to computer science education and became also became second Vice President of the IEEE Computer Society. Dr. Clements is the recipient of the 2002 Computer Science Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award (IEEE CS) for teaching excellence reflected on textbooks with major impact on computer architecture education as well is the 2007 Taylor L. Booth award recipient for outstanding contributions to education in the field of computer architecture.