Ch. 1. Introduction : how physics defines the LHC environment and detectors / D. Green -- ch. 2. The CMS pixel detector / W. Erdmann -- ch. 3. The hybrid tracking system of ATLAS / Leonardo Rossi -- ch. 4. The all-silicon strip CMS tracker : microtechnology at the macroscale / M. Mannelli -- ch. 5. The ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeters : features and performance / Luciano Mandelli -- ch. 6. The CMS electromagnetic calorimeter : crystals and APD productions / P. Bloch -- ch. 7. ATLAS electronics : an overview / Philippe Farthouat -- ch. 8. Innovations in the CMS tracker electronics / G. Hall -- ch. 9. TileCal : the hadronic section of the central ATLAS calorimeter / K. Anderson [and others] -- ch. 10. Innovations for the CMS HCAL / J. Freeman -- ch. 11. ATLAS superconducting toroids -- the largest ever built / Herman H.J. ten Kate -- ch. 12. Constructing a 4-Tesla large thin solenoid at the limit of what can be safely operated / A. Hervé -- ch. 13. The ATLAS muon spectrometer / Giora Mikenberg -- ch. 14. The CMS muon detector : from the first thoughts to the final design / Fabrizio Gasparini -- ch. 15. The why and how of the ATLAS data acquisition system / Livio Mapelli and Giuseppe Mornacchi -- ch. 16. Removing the haystack -- the CMS trigger and data acquisition systems / Vivian O'Dell.