Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics: The Essential Guide (Embedded Technology) [Paperback]

Thomas M. Coughlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0750684658 | ISBN-13: 978-0750684651 | Edition: 1

Consumer electronics engineers, technicians, and managers, embedded engineers, system engineers, product designers & developers, network engineers and managers, programmers, marketing and sales personnel, and providers of content to electronic device end users

* Presents best practices for selecting, integrating, and using storage devices to achieve higher performance, greater reliability and lower cost
* Teardown photos provide rare visuals of the "guts" of the devices discussed
* Covers hot topics including flash memory, DVRs, Apple iPods, home networks, and automotive electronics, from basic layouts to standards, advanced features, and exciting growth opportunities

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book will immediately become an indispensable reference book for the storage industry movers and shakers, developers and users. It will be a valued contribution for years to come." - Rick Wietfeldt, CTO, Emerging Technologies and Strategy, Texas Instruments, Inc.


"Tom Coughlin's Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics is an excellent guide to the internal workings of increasingly ubiquitous digital storage. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to understand and not simply use technology to enrich their lives." - Tom Clark, Principal Engineer, Brocade, and Board Member of the Storage Networking Industry Association

About the Author

Tom Coughlin is a 25-year veteran of the digital storage industry. He has worked at several companies (including Ampex, Seagate, Maxtor, and Polaroid) designing and managing the design of digital storage products. He is the founder and organizer of the Storage Visions Conference, the leading annual event on digital storage in consumer electronics. Attendance at Storage Visions has increased about 70% annually in recent years, and includes all the major worldwide players in the technology. Tom is also a market analyst in the storage area and the author of annual reports on entertainment content creation and distribution and on the integration of digital storage into consumer electronics. He has extensive industry contacts and a broad base of support for the research required to complete this book. He has over 50 publications and six patents to his credit and is active in the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society (current chairman of the Santa Clara Valley IEEE CE Society), the IDEMA Consumer Electronics Committee (co-chair), and other professional organizations. Tom has a bachelor of science in Physics and a Masters in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Materials Science.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Newnes; 1 edition (March 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750684658
• ISBN-13: 978-0750684651
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,636,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read for those interested in storage, February 25, 2009

By 

Michael J. Lorello (Guilford, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics: The Essential Guide (Embedded Technology) (Paperback)

With over ten years of experience in the Embedded Systems Electrical Engineering field, I must say that this is one of the better books I have read when it comes to clarity and ease of reading. Mr. Coughlin does a nice job covering the different storage technologies. He also touches on up and coming technologies that got me wondering what will be hitting the markets next and how I might incorporate them into the products I design. I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about digital data storage.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The essential guide and behind the scene look into consumer electronics, February 15, 2009

By 

Greg P. Schulz (Stillwater, MN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics: The Essential Guide (Embedded Technology) (Paperback)

In Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics: The Essential Guide (Embedded Technology) Tom Coughlin has written the definitive and essential guide to digital storage in consumer electronics providing clear and concise explanations of the various technologies commonly used and relied upon in our daily lives. From cell phones, to MP3 players, from DVRs and Tivos at home to FLASH and SSD devices, Tom provides a unique behind the scene look into how the technology works, what to look for and consolidation as well as perspectives on why designers make different choices to balance functionality with manufacturability.

For the consumer, this book provides a great behind the scene look into how technology works including photos, block diagrams and explanation of various devices as well as a glimpse into the future not to mention why and how things work, or, why they break due to exposure to the wrong elements and why. For technology marketers and designers, this book provides great perspectives to help position compare and contrast as well as discuss the current and emerging technologies to customers, partners and others.

With a growing focus around Solid State Devices (SSD) for storing data, this is a must read book on how various technologies work and other considerations not only for consumer, as well as business computing. I suggest and recommend this book be on any IT professionals, or, consumer electronic aficionado or techno geek's book shelf.

Greg Schulz - Founder StorageIO, Author The Green and Virtual Data Center and Resilient Storage Networks: Designing Flexible Scalable Data Infrastructures (Digital Press Storage Technology)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A map for the consumer storage technology maze, July 18, 2008

By 

David James (San Jose, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics: The Essential Guide (Embedded Technology) (Paperback)

This book provides a highly readable framework which connects all the storage technologies that we use in today's gadgets.

It covers the principles and implementation of disk, optical and solid state storage in a wide renge of devices from GPS devices to DVR's.

Data storage is one of the least-understood, most undervalued and poorly publicized technologies of modern times.

Perhaps the industry has been so busy creating all this magic that we haven't taken the time to secure appropriate media coverage.

It's refreshing to see a broad view and Tom Coughlin presents technical descriptions, market data and real applications in a highly readable way.

My personal favorites are the block diagrams and internal photos of devices and systems.

The technical level of this book is a good match for a range of audiences including engineering, marketing and sales people. Students will also find it a valuable map to a bewildering complexity of concepts.

It provides enough technical detail to grasp how these things actually work, while avoiding mathematics and simultaneously positioning the technologies in an articulate and interesting way.