Complete Digital Design: A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Electronics and Computer System Architecture (Professional Engineering) [Hardcover]

Mark Balch (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0071409270 | ISBN-13: 978-0071409278 | Publication Date: June 18, 2003 | Edition: Metric

There are over 350,000 electrical and electronics engineers, and hundreds of thousands more electronics technicians and hobbyists. With the addition of so many communications topics into EE programs in the past 5 years, fundamentals of digital design have been abandoned for briefer, overview courses, leaving many newly-minted EEs undereducated in what should be one of their core competencies. In order to design and implement digital systems, one must understand and navigate many components, architectures, and practices which are painfully inter-dependent. This book will allow the reader faced with a design problem to develop a customized set of requirements for that problem, then research and evaluate available components and technologies to solve it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

For engineers, students, and technicians or hobbyists concerned with real-world implementation of complete digital systems -- whether they involve a desktop computer or a car's engine controller -- electrical engineer Balch covers underlying concepts as well as the practicalities of design. He begins with digital logic and microprocessor fundamentals and then proceeds to more advanced topics (logic design methodologies, high-performance memory and networking technologies, and programmable logic devices); critical analog support circuitry; and design issues such as clock distribution, power regulation, signal integrity, design for test, and circuit fabrication techniques. (Sci-Tech Book News )

From the Back Cover

YOUR ONE-STOP RESOURCE FOR DIGITAL SYSTEM DESIGN!

The explosion in communications and embedded computing technologies has brought with it a host of new skill requirements for electrical and electronics engineers, students, and hobbyists. With engineers expected to have such diverse expertise, they need comprehensive, easy-to-understand guidance on the fundamentals of digital design.

Enter McGraw-Hill’s Complete Digital Design. Written by an experienced electrical engineer and networking hardware designer, this book helps you understand and navigate the interlocking components, architectures, and practices necessary to design and implement digital systems. It includes:

* Real world implementation of microprocessor-based digital systems
* Broad presentation of supporting analog circuit principles
* Building complete systems with basic design elements and the latest technologies

Complete Digital Design will teach you how to develop a customized set of requirements for any design problem — and then research and evaluate available components and technologies to solve it. Perfect for the professional, the student, and the hobbyist alike, this is one volume you need handy at all times!

What you’ll find inside:
* Digital logic and timing analysis
* Integrated circuits
* Microprocessor and computer architecture
* Memory technologies
* Networking and serial communications
* Finite state machine design
* Programmable logic: CPLD and FPGA
* Analog circuit basics
* Diodes, transistors, and operational amplifiers
* Analog-to-digital conversion
* Voltage regulation
* Signal integrity and PCB design
* And more!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 460 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; Metric edition (June 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071409270
• ISBN-13: 978-0071409278
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,220,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and comprehensive, July 23, 2007

By 

Eli Bendersky (Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Digital Design: A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Electronics and Computer System Architecture (Professional Engineering) (Hardcover)

Ah, I wish I'd found this book two years ago. Back then, when I just started working as an EE, the benefit I could gain from the book would be huge. Today, knowing at least 90% of what is has to say, I'm still very much impressed.

Mark Balch takes a unifying approach I haven't seen in other books. Deciding to focus on the complete spectrum of digital/electronic design is a great decision, since most of the books out there either pay attention only to logic and assembly or only to leakage currents in diodes and bode plots of filters. Often, an EE has to work closely with both worlds, which is what the author of this book understood and filled 460 pages with valuable information.

On one hand this book teaches digital logic (with nice practical aspects, for example the 7400 family), computer architecture, memory, communications (with a great section explaining all the nuts-and-bolts of the omnipresent RS232/422/485 family of
standards), networking, state machines, FPGAs and CPLDs.

On the other hand, it doesn't neglect the low level stuff. A good overview of basic electronics is given, including information on diodes, transistors, op-amps and ADC/DACs. It doesn't stop there and discusses the practical aspects of design I haven't seen described in other (non-textbook) books - clock distribution, power regulation/distribution, signal integrity and various debugging techniques.

What I liked especially is that the author doesn't get into the topics too deep - there's textbooks and data-sheets for that. He gives theory when needed, focuses on the practicals and refers to other sources of information. In particular, the section that explains how to read data-sheets and what to pay attention to while reading is a gold-mine for young engineers.

I think this book can be very useful for fresh engineers - to get quickly informed of the wide spectrum of design practices or even for students of EE - to see the bigger picture. To seasoned professionals it won't provide much new knowledge.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 Stars for content- should take 1 off for the small font!, March 6, 2008

By 

rickzz "rickzz" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Complete Digital Design: A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Electronics and Computer System Architecture (Professional Engineering) (Hardcover)

I'm very impressed with "Complete Digital Design" (2003) in that it covers all aspects of modern digital design (with the exception of CMOS IC electronics). The coverage isn't superficial either- the author is very concise but still insightful in his overview of digital logic and computer architecture.

Unlike nearly every other digital design book, the author also covers basic analog electronics, signal integrity and system design in general. This book should be considered the new bible of digital design since it's much more up to date and useful than the far better known "Art of Electronics" (1989).

The only drawback to this book is the very small font-size of the text! If you're curious how a book that's only 460 pages can cover so much material, well there's your answer unfortunately :(

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, December 17, 2008

By 

A Reader "A Reader" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Complete Digital Design: A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Electronics and Computer System Architecture (Professional Engineering) (Hardcover)

This is a superbly written book. The author has real gift for creating clear, consise, and complete explanations. Some of the topics that I particularly was impressed by are 1) the explanation of synchronization when crossing clock domains 2) the how and why of the I2C and SPI serial interfaces 3) use of decoupling capacitors in noisy systems. There were many more. The section called "Electrical Fundamentals" is good, valuable information. The remarkable thing about the book is the way all the topics in the book are presented in the context of practical digital design... the common thread throughout the book is "how does this relate to a digital system. The font is small, but I view this as getting my money's worth :-). Overall, this is a very, very good book.