Digital Electronics and Design with VHDL [Hardcover]

Volnei A. Pedroni Ph.D. California Institute of Technology; former visiting Professor Harvey Mudd College (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 8, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0123742706 | ISBN-13: 978-0123742704 | Edition: 1

This book offers a friendly presentation of the fundamental principles and practices of modern digital design. Unlike any other book in this field, transistor-level implementations are also included, which allow the readers to gain a solid understanding of a circuit's real potential and limitations, and to develop a realistic perspective on the practical design of actual integrated circuits. Coverage includes the largest selection available of digital circuits in all categories (combinational, sequential, logical, or arithmetic). Coverage also includes detailed digital design techniques, with a thorough discussion on state-machine modeling for the analysis and design of complex sequential systems. Key technologies used in modern circuits are also described, including Bipolar, MOS, ROM/RAM, and CPLD/FPGA chips, as well as codes and techniques used in data storage and transmission. Designs are illustrated by means of complete, realistic applications using VHDL, where the complete code, comments and simulation results are included.

* Comprehensive coverage of fundamental digital concepts and principles, as well as complete, realistic, industry-standard designs
* Many circuits shown with internal details at the transistor-level, as in real integrated circuits
* Actual technologies used in state-of-the-art digital circuits presented in conjunction with fundamental concepts and principles
* Six chapters dedicated to VHDL-based techniques, with all VHDL-based designs synthesized onto CPLD/FPGA chips

Product Details

• Hardcover: 720 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 1 edition (February 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0123742706
• ISBN-13: 978-0123742704
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,380,772 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An FPGA Designers Review, November 18, 2008

By 

Brian Padalino (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Digital Electronics and Design with VHDL (Hardcover)

While reading *Digital Electronics and Design with VHDL*, I was happy to find a
text that had such grounded roots. A good amount of the examples are directly
applicable to todays digital electronics engineer in the worlds of ASIC, FPGA
and general PCB design.

I've separated out this review into separate sections to cover two different
views of the book: Digital Electronics and VHDL. While the title suggests they
are presented hand-in-hand, upon further inspection they are, indeed, mutually
exclusive. Digital Electronics encompasses the first 18 chapters followed by
VHDL for the last 5 chapters.

## Digital Electronics ##

The main emphasis of this book is clearly on the digital electronics aspect.
Starting with a very detailed look at the history of the transistor and
integrated circuit (IC) technology, the book is packed with solid information
without getting lost in too many details.

Both sequential and combinatorial logic is covered in full detail with
accompanying transistor-level schematics and even wafer-level cross-sections
when applicable.

All examples inline with the text are titled, well diagrammed and explained,
and provides a solution for greater understanding.

The exercises at the end of each chapter are all very relevant questions which
professionals face in the real world (power consumption, timing analysis,
fan-out, etc). Moreover, each exercise is appropriately titled to provide a
reference to the applicable section of text.

## VHDL ##

VHDL is introduced in Chapter 19 of the book, and is covered in quite a hurry.
It seems that the audience for this section of the book is someone who has
already had some experience with VHDL as a language and is not a complete
novice.

While I am happy the text focuses mainly on synthesizable designs that actually
work in a programmable logic device, the examples are riddled with
inconsistencies and even bad practice. For example, the author explains how
`STD_LOGIC` is the industry standard but the examples use `BIT`. Another
example uses a `BUFFER` which is not good practice and may cause synthesis
issues. Lastly, small problems in examples such as using an `INTEGER` for a
bit width generic input instead of a `POSITIVE`.

I was delighted to see a good description of the `NUMERIC_STD` package
versus the `STD_LOGIC_ARITH` package, and ecstatic to see the emphasis
put on using the IEEE accepted `NUMERIC_STD` package. On the other
hand, the author doesn't do a good job describing behavioral versus structural
design and never performs any file IO.

Lastly, the state machines in the examples, while syntactically correct, are
not very well written. The code presented is obviously for a demonstrable
purpose and not useful for extensibility or beneficial towards the advancement
of anyone's career in programmable logic.

## Conclusions ##

Overall, I feel the book deserved 3.5-stars, but there are a few caveats. If I
were to rate this book on the *Digital Electronics* aspect, I would bump up
the rating to be a full 5-stars. There is not one area for which I would not
use this as a desk reference as well as an immediate teaching tool for
beginners who need a good place to start.

On the other hand, if I were to rate this book strictly on the *VHDL* aspect,
I would have to take the rating down to 2-stars. It's great to see a reference
where the designs are synthesizable, but there are too many inconsistencies
within the code itself to make me feel comfortable using it as a solid
reference.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life is much easier...., August 8, 2008

By 

Magdy Saeb "book virtuoso" (Cairo, Egypt) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Digital Electronics and Design with VHDL (Hardcover)

Teaching or learning FPGA-based digital circuit design is never easy. However, once a teacher, a student or a practicing engineer equip him or herself with such a book, life will be much easier. The book includes a self-contained part on VHDL language description with a large number of examples. These examples provide applications using most of the building blocks of combinational and sequential digital circuits. The examples are discussed, with implementable VHDL code. The code is explained in a leisurely pedantic and simple manner that is quite easy to understand. The design examples are provided with synthesis, simulation and elaborate comments. A chapter that covers SPICE provides a background on circuit simulation.

The material contained between the two end-pages of this book facilitates the work expected by computer or electronic engineers. The book is a great addition to my library and I have to congratulate the author on a job well-done.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book got even bettter, September 30, 2008

By 

Uwe Meyer-baese (Tallahassee, FL, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Digital Electronics and Design with VHDL (Hardcover)

I have used the first edition "Circuit Design with VHDL" by Pedroni 6 times to teach a VHDL/FPLD course and me and my students liked the book a lot, since (1) All important HDL language elements are covered, (2) the VHDL examples really work, (3) has many home works with solution for instructors and (4) also a good overview on FPLD devices. Now with the second edition out you can use the same book to teach both, digital logic and a VHDL course, which saves students essential time and money. I plan to use it for my courses for many years to come. In summary: An excellent text books just got even better!