Book review: Computer and Communication Systems Performance Modelling by Peter J.B. King (Prentice Hall 1990)
David Finkel · ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review · 1990
The preface to this book sets out the author's thesis, that "computer science students tend to view performance analysis as a practical discipline ... [and] often prefer to rely on physical insight and intuition rather than formal insights." Accordingly, the author's approach is to emphasize useful methods and applications, rather than formal mathematical derivations. The background expected of students is basic operating systems, machine architecture, data structures, and elementary calculus and basic probability theory.