FPGAs: World Class Designs [Paperback]

Clive Maxfield (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1856176215 | ISBN-13: 978-1856176217 | Publication Date: March 4, 2009 | Edition: 1

All the design and development inspiration and direction a harware engineer needs in one blockbuster book! Clive "Max" Maxfield renowned author, columnist, and editor of PL DesignLine has selected the very best FPGA design material from the Newnes portfolio and has compiled it into this volume. The result is a book covering the gamut of FPGA design from design fundamentals to optimized layout techniques with a strong pragmatic emphasis. In addition to specific design techniques and practices, this book also discusses various approaches to solving FPGA design problems and how to successfully apply theory to actual design tasks. The material has been selected for its timelessness as well as for its relevance to contemporary FPGA design issues.

Contents
Chapter 1 Alternative FPGA Architectures
Chapter 2 Design Techniques, Rules, and Guidelines
Chapter 3 A VHDL Primer: The Essentials
Chapter 4 Modeling Memories
Chapter 5 Introduction to Synchronous State Machine Design and Analysis
Chapter 6 Embedded Processors
Chapter 7 Digital Signal Processing
Chapter 8 Basics of Embedded Audio Processing
Chapter 9 Basics of Embedded Video and Image Processing
Chapter 10 Programming Streaming FPGA Applications Using Block Diagrams In Simulink
Chapter 11 Ladder and functional block programming
Chapter 12 Timers

*Hand-picked content selected by Clive "Max" Maxfield, character, luminary, columnist, and author
*Proven best design practices for FPGA development, verification, and low-power
*Case histories and design examples get you off and running on your current project

Product Details

• Paperback: 488 pages
• Publisher: Newnes; 1 edition (March 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1856176215
• ISBN-13: 978-1856176217
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,636,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bob is the president and founder of Software Analysis and Forensic Engineering Corporation (www.SAFE-corp.biz), the leading provider of software intellectual property analysis tools. Bob is considered a pioneer in the field of analyzing software intellectual property, having created the CodeSuite(R) program for detecting software IP theft and measuring software IP growth.

Bob Zeidman is also the president and founder of Zeidman Consulting (www.ZeidmanConsulting.com), a premier contract research and development firm in Silicon Valley that now focuses on consulting to law firms about intellectual property disputes. Since 1983, Bob has designed computer chips and circuit boards for RISC-based parallel processor systems, laser printers, network switches and routers, and other complex systems. His clients have included Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, Cadence Design Systems, Facebook, Intel, and Texas Instruments, and Zynga. Bob has worked on and testified in cases involving billions of dollars in disputed intellectual property.

Bob is a prolific writer and instructor, giving seminars at conferences around the world. Among his publications are numerous articles on engineering and business as well as fourt textbooks -- The Software IP Detective's Handbook, Designing with FPGAs and CPLDs, Verilog Designer's Library, and Introduction to Verilog. Bob holds multiple patents and earned two bachelor's degrees, in physics and electrical engineering, from Cornell University and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Bob is active in a number of nonprofits, sitting on the boards of several. He also enjoys writing novels and screenplays and has won a number of awards for these works of fiction.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A sampler plate, February 10, 2011

By 

Adi Oltean - See all my reviews

This review is from: FPGAs: World Class Designs (Paperback)

I thought of it as a "sampler plate", offering various interesting bits and pieces. It might be useful for someone completely new to FPGAs and digital design, who is not scared of jumping into a completely unknown domain. The book groups various chapters "hand-picked" by the author with the possible goal of giving an idea of the overall problem space.

That said, the content of the book is pretty non-uniform (hence the three stars) and probably less useful for a student or an experienced professional. If you are a newcomer and looking for a rigorous, progressive introduction in either FPGA or digital design, this is not the right book for you (you might want instead to look at books such as the two books FPGA Prototyping by VHDL (or Verilog) Examples by Pong P. Chu). If you have some expertise in the area, you might be turned off by the extreme diversity, and by the fact that many chapters are at an introductory level.

A few comments on the actual chapters:
- Chapter 1 is copied from Design warrior's guide to FPGAs by the same author. It's a pretty good intro (that chapter alone made me buy the book)
- Chapter 2 (copied from Designing with FPGAs and CPLDs by Bob Zeidman) Plus: great chapter on synchronous design, etc. Minus: 24 pages of unexplained Verilog code. The author doesn't even explain that the language used to write that code is Verilog, so a newbie could be very confused by this chapter.
- Chapter 3 nice VHDL intro (copied Design recipes for FPGA by Peter Wilson).
- Chapter 4 Modeling memories (from ASIC and FPGA verification, by Richard Munden). Interesting step-by-step description of how to model a SDRAM device using the VITAL2000 package. Unfortunately too brief. Hopefully the actual book contains more details.
- Chapter 5 (copied from Electrical Engineering Design by Richard Tinder). Arguably the best chapter in the book that justifies stuff like why a D-flip-flop is actually built that way, etc. Must-read. After reading this chapter I promptly ordered R. Tinder's book.
- Chapter 6 (from: Design recipes for FPGAs by Peter Wilson). The chapter goes through modeling a simple, minimal embedded CPU.
- Chaptes 7,8,9 on DSP, audio, video - haven't read them in detail, but they are again introductory chapters.
- Chapter 10 (from "The theory and practice of Reconfigurable Computing") - showcases using high-level design methodologies through a simple project for contour/edge detection implemented in Simulink