The Design Warrior's Guide to FPGAs (Edn Series for Design Engineers) (Paperback)

by Clive "Max" Maxfield (Author)
Key Phrases: grammable logic blocks, dynamic formal verification, static formal verification, Michael Faraday, Confluence Compiler, Icarus Verilog (more...)

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: 560 pages
• Publisher: Newnes (April 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750676043
• ISBN-13: 978-0750676045
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #171,692 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 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 (REAL NAME)

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.

15 of 15 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

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.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much More than a Cookbook, August 1, 2004

By	R. G Munden (Sunnyvale, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I would guess that Clive "Max" Maxfield has been an electronics
enthusiast for a very long time. He seems to enjoy the history
of the industry as much as the current state of the art. His
latest book, "The Design Warrior's Guide to FPGAs" describes not
only everything you need to know to get started designing state
of the art FPGAs, but also how the art came to be in its current
state.

This book does not cover the constantly changing details of how
to run any particular FPGA design tool. That information comes with the tools. Instead, it talks about all the available tools and design methodologies - which will help you decide which tools to look at.

I must admit that when I first saw the book, I imagined reading
it would be something of a slog through the swamp as so many
technical books are. Upon first opening the book, I was delighted to discover that Maxfield's writing style actually makes reading the book more of a romp in the park. There are portions of the book that I intended to just scan but found myself sucked into reading in full. I found chapters such as the origins of FPGAs and ASICs to be interestingly informative and nostalgic at the same time. Subject headings such as "We were all so much younger then" and "Choosing the best logic simulator in the world" were too irresistible to skim over.

In short, "The Design Warrior's Guide to FPGAs" will be great
source of knowledge to the FPGA newcommer. 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.