Customer Reviews

CMOS VLSI Design: A Circuits and Systems Perspective (3rd Edition)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a weird world: there are so many CMOS circuit experts in the whole world, whereas there are so few CMOS circuit books to plot what in their heads when they play with CMOS devices! This book is the reason. I think it is the true bible for CMOS design. By the way, the authors are really generous, they provide the most valuable three chapters online for free download! When I downloaded and read these three chapters, I ended up with having a brand-new one on my shelf.

Looking to build a small collection of books in the area of issues related to the design of modern CMOS circuitry, I came across this book. A PhD candidate friend of mine recommended this book as "the CMOS designer's bible." I was not at all disappointed. Unlike many other books in this area, this is not merely a collection of disparate and hard-to-understand journal articles, but rather a real college textbook written from the ground up. This 3rd edition update to the original brings in lots of new examples and material related to nanometer CMOS design issues.

I've since purchased several more books in this field, but I still find this book to be more comprehensive and comprehensible than any others. On the other hand, I'll admit that it doesn't go as deep as say, an IEEE journal or conference paper. So if you're looking to become expert in the latest happenings in some very specific area, stick to the IEEE papers. But if you're looking for a comprehensive reference book and introduction to CMOS design, I doubt you'll do better than this book.

The best book on VLSI out there! A must for all designers and professionals. This book gives insight that very few books on VLSI give. Its a treasure and a book to remain in one's collection well after that first, difficult yet exciting, semester in VLSI. A superlative book and read!

I recently taught a senior undergraduate/first year graduate introductory course with VLSI with this book as the text. I found this book to be confusing and frustrating to the students. In order to lecture on VLSI topics in what I thought was a logical order, I had to jump around in the text book. My main complaint is that the book is organized more like an encylopedia and not like a textbook. As such I think it makes a very good reference for those with previous training or experience in the VLSI field, but confusing and unhelpful for those learning the field for the first time.

Oddly, the second edition of Weste (Weste and Eshragian) is far better organized and much more coherent in its development of topics within VLSI. I found myself often going back to the second edition when I was preparing lectures.

A second complaint is that the book introduces logical effort as a primary topic early on in the discussion of switching delays, in my opinion at the expense of discussion of the fundamental circuit mechanisms in switching delay (which again are discussed in detail in Weste 2nd Ed). The emphasis on logical effort continues throughout the text. Again, a choice that is reasonable if your audience is experienced engineers but not for an introductory course.

I will probably change texts for next year, most likely to the text by Rabaey et al, which appears to be much better organized for an introduction to VLSI. In sum, Weste 3rd edition might make a good text for a second or third course in VLSI, or a good reference for practitioners in the field, but not a good text for a first course in VLSI.

While CMOS is the working horse of the electronics industry, there are very few good comprehensive (and readable) books on the subject. This is especially so if your university education focused mainly on software. A solid understanding of electronics is necessary to understand literature on CMOS design. Especially if you want to understand the complexities of designing for power-consumption optimization, speed, space and bill of material costs - and the tradeoffs involved in toggling between these four considerations.

Back in 2004, while I was a postgraduate student, I struggled with a book on the subject by Rabaey, Chandrakasan and Nikolic, "Digital Integrated Circuits - A Design Perspective, 2nd edition". I guess it was not easy simply because I was new to the discipline. However, I can only wish that back then, I had had such a great and so much more readable book like CMOS VLSI Design!

I warmly recommend this book.

Good book covering CMOS VLSI design. Excellent turtorial on Verilog in the appendix.

This edition is as useful as the earlier editions. Besides providing insight on almost all the topics of VLSI, the third edition also addresses several issues related to the sub-micron technology.

I have more than 15 integrated circuit design text books, this new edition is one of the best. It bridges academy with industry for VLSI, I like the part about "pitfalls" very much, it provides real lessons what industry has experienced. I like the way this book surveys related topics, for example, sequential circuits topics. It has a brief and good coverage on low power topic(covered in sections in differenct chapters). It also introduces Hspice with useful commands not seen in other text books.
Previously I mainly used Jan Rabaey's `Digital Integrated Circuit ' book for research before Fall 2004(I still use it today, it's also one of the best books), I must say that this 3rd edition added more latest materials, I am amazed about how the authors read so many IEEE papers and sort, category them in this book. Thank the authors for supply such valuble information in one book!

Comprehensive treatment of the subject, very clear and easy to understand. Also has advanced topics.

The quality of the book I received is actually amazing. Just like a new book. But I don't know if I can get such new second-hand book any more.