The Design Warrior's Guide to FPGAs: Devices, Tools and Flows (Edn Series for Design Engineers) [Paperback]

Clive "Max" Maxfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 26, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0750676043 | ISBN-13: 978-0750676045

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are devices that provide a fast, low-cost way for embedded system designers to customize products and deliver new versions with upgraded features, because they can handle very complicated functions, and be reconfigured an infinite number of times. In addition to introducing the various architectural features available in the latest generation of FPGAs, The Design Warrior's Guide to FPGAs also covers different design tools and flows.

This book covers information ranging from schematic-driven entry, through traditional HDL/RTL-based simulation and logic synthesis, all the way up to the current state-of-the-art in pure C/C++ design capture and synthesis technology. Also discussed are specialist areas such as mixed hardward/software and DSP-based design flows, along with innovative new devices such as field programmable node arrays (FPNAs).

Clive "Max" Maxfield is a bestselling author and engineer with a large following in the electronic design automation (EDA)and embedded systems industry. In this comprehensive book, he covers all the issues of interest to designers working with, or contemplating a move to, FPGAs in their product designs. While other books cover fragments of FPGA technology or applications this is the first to focus exclusively and comprehensively on FPGA use for embedded systems.

* First book to focus exclusively and comprehensively on FPGA use in embedded designs

* World-renowned best-selling author

* Will help engineers get familiar and succeed with this new technology by providing much-needed advice on choosing the right FPGA for any design project

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Design Warrior's Guide to FPGAs describes not only everything you need to know to start designing FPGAs, but also how the art came to be in its current state...Unlike many in the EDA industry, Maxfield doesn't forget that chips go on boards: One chapter looks at PCB considerations of FPGA Design...I must admit that when I first saw the book, I imagined reading it would be something of a slog as so many technical books are. Upon opening the book, I was delighted to discover that Maxfield's writing style actually makes reading the book more of a romp in the part. There are portions of the book that I intended to just scan but found myself sucked into reading in full...The Design Warrior's Guide to FPGAs will be a great source of knowledge to the FPGA newcomer. It will also provide new insights and broaden the veteran designer's knowledge of the field. But most of all it is a fun and engaging read for anyone for whom electronics design is more than a 9-to-5 job. It is a good buy at the $49.95 list price - PRINTED CIRCUIT DESIGN & MANUFACTURE JULY 2004

If you've never read any books written by Clive "Max" Maxfield, then you're in for a treat. True to form, his latest book on FPGAs is enjoyable to read. Yet it's also rich in the technical details that any modern designer would need...He covers all of the issues that anyone working with FPGAs or thinking about moving to them would need to know...As with most of Max's work, this book's appendix is a treasure trove of background tutorials...While this book is well suited for young engineers - anyone with less than the prerequisite five years in FPGA or ASIC design - it also offers many topics that will interest the experienced designer - Wireless Systems Design, August 2004

...a must-read book for those designers who either want an introduction to designing with FPGAs or need to broaden their understanding of the EDA tools available for such applications. Maxfield writes in a easy-to-read style, and provides insightful and diverse information for designers and curious readers alike. The author has never forgotten his designer roots, and the book is full of examples and chapters dedicated to such applications as gigabit transceivers, linear-feedback-shift registers, and integration of third-party cores. -- EDN, 5/21/2004

Book Description

Answers all the engineer's pivotal questions about this exciting new technology- why are they better, what will they cost, and how do I use them?

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Product Details

• Paperback: 542 pages
• Publisher: Newnes (April 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750676043
• ISBN-13: 978-0750676045
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #695,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hi there, my name is Clive Maxfield, but everyone calls me "Max" (the name of every dog and every robot in every science fiction film ever made). This is sort of a family nickname; my dad, aunt, little 'bro, and so forth are all called "Max" (this can lead to somewhat convoluted after-dinner conversations).

When I was younger, I was interested in both Art and Engineering; at one stage I was seriously contemplating going to art school, but my mom told me that very few artists made much money, so I became an engineer specializing in electronics and computers. And then, while I wasn't looking, I accidentally became a writer. Don't ask me how; it started with a single magazine article, and ended up with seven books and writing as a full-time job (in the day) and as a hobby (in the evenings).

My current passion (apart from my wife, of course) is my recently published book "How Computers Do Math" (which I co-authored with my friend, Alvin Brown). This little scamp is accompanied by a CD-ROM containing a virtual computer/calculator called the DIY Calculator. The book walks the reader through a series of step-by-step interactive laboratories, that end up with the creation of a simple four-function (add, subtract, multiply, and divide) calculator program (written in our simple assembly language) that makes the DIY Calculator ... well, calculate (you can read more on our website at www.DIYCalculator.com).

Last but not least, my idea of a good time is having a BBQ and hanging out with family and friends.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great general culture book, but lacking technical content., July 29, 2004

By 

Patrick Van Esch (Grenoble, France) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Design Warrior's Guide to FPGAs: Devices, Tools and Flows (Edn Series for Design Engineers) (Paperback)

I gave this book 3 stars, but maybe it should get more, because on one hand this is a great book to read, and you learn a lot of what I call general culture from it. But I missed mostly of what I wanted from it so I got frustrated during the reading.

Let me explain. I'm an electrical engineer with quite some experience, mainly in the analogue/physics/microwave etc... area, but I completely 'missed the FPGA train'. Soon I'll have to plunge into FPGA design, and I thought that this book (together with a VHDL textbook) would get me started. I read through the book from cover to cover (it is an easy and fun read!), and I have the feeling that I can now go and chat with just any experienced FPGA designer, I'll be able to keep up appearances over the coffee, I'm aware of what happens on the market, what were former habits, what's trendy right now etc...
But if that same designer takes me to his office to really discuss technical issues I'll flunk. All the content in the book is on the superficial coffee corner discussion level (which doesn't mean it isn't interesting to know this). Reading the book replaces discussions over coffee during the last five years with FPGA design engineers. But a book that is supposed to be a design guide, should, to me, include concrete, realistic, worked-out case studies: put the blah-blah to work. And that's what's terribly missing in this book: no worked-out examples, exercises, problems, and that's what I thought the book was going to offer me, to get me started. And that's what disappointed me, hence 3 stars.

On the positive side, it is true that - if somehow you manage to learn to really work with FPGAs somewhere else - the general culture provided in this book is formidable. In fact, I think this book is perfect for non-technical managers who have to take high-level decisions and have to learn to talk to their technically minded collaborators. But it is not enough for the technical manager who has to take architectural decisions and it is utterly frustrating for the engineer in the trenches if he doesn't get his working knowledge elsewhere.

Also the fun style of the book, which has almost no prerequisites concerning electronics, is a great plus. So if this book were titled 'Boost up your general culture about FPGAs' I'd have given it easily 5 stars.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Middle-Manager's Guide to Sounding Like You Know Something About FPGAs, May 13, 2007

By 

towSaint (Forest Grove, OR United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Design Warrior's Guide to FPGAs: Devices, Tools and Flows (Edn Series for Design Engineers) (Paperback)

I am an EE with no previous FPGA experience. Some of the reviews here made me think this book might be a good stepping stone. Completely wrong. The title of the book is misleading, in my opinion. For the engineer wanting to get started using FPGAs this book is utterly without merit. Why did I give it any stars then? Well, I'm assuming that the nebulously defined 'wide audience' the book was really written for is non-technical managers who need enough of an understanding of common acronyms and terminology to impress their even-less-technical bosses, accounting, and HR people and to be able to relay communications without garbling the message too badly. The author devotes a tremendous amount of space to making sure you know how to pronounce the relevant acronyms like 'FPGA', 'SRAM', etc. The author also sedulously avoids any 'brass tacks' kind of information in an effort to keep his book from becoming obsolete too soon. In my opinion this strategy is like making something useless to begin with, so it won't *become* useless later. Having read this book (it's a fast read: low information density, much repetition, large margins (for acronym pronunciation and largely irrelevant history trivia), and big print.) I think a manager needing a survey of FPGAs and especially terminology might find this useful. To anyone wanting to actually implement something in an FPGA look somewhere else.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So, tell me again what I am supposed to do???, January 19, 2005

By 

Donald W. Miklovic (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Design Warrior's Guide to FPGAs: Devices, Tools and Flows (Edn Series for Design Engineers) (Paperback)

All these nifty block diagrams and acronymes, but I still don't know how to work with an FPGA. I would have liked to see at least one concrete example of how to make an FPGA do something. This book is not for the beginner in FPGA's.