Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Digital Logic with VHDL Design with CD-ROM

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Fundamentals of Digital Logic is the book I am using during this semester in my Computer Engineering Ciriculum. Brown and Vranesic were more than likely very on top of their game when they first wrote the book - but it is clearly dated. The classic example of a pop machine (state machine design) really needs to be buried.

The book's examples are often difficult to follow, as there is very, very heavy reading involved. When I am presented with a concept in digital logic, computer science, or engineering, I want clear examples, with all steps explained in detail - not a paragraph or two with the idea enclosed. It just doesn't work as well as several good examples.

However, the book isn't all that horrible. In fact, it's not bad at all. It does a fine job of explaining memory elements, but, in retrospect, it does an extremely poor job of covering transmission gates and multiplexers. I can't tell you how long it took me to figure out how to work both of those devices.

All in all - I'd say if you have to buy this book for your course, you might want to pick up a few supplemantal texts for additional insight into more challenging concepts.

Good luck!

Being completely new to VHDL and only somewhat experienced with TTL circuits, I needed a book that would cover all the basics of logic design before getting into VHDL. Logic concepts I previously had trouble grasping were made much clearer in the context of the VHDL examples. Definitely five stars!

It certainly shocked me, after the rash of worthless textbooks I've had to buy in my college career, but this book was actually usable. It's not spectacular, mind you, but I don't think there is such a thing as a spectacular textbook. It was good enough to keep after the class was over, and I may even refer to it again sometime.

I had one of the author of this book as my professor during my second year of engineering at the University of Toronto. I used this book for my Digital System course. I am currently doing ASIC Design where much of my work required VHDL. This is an "OK" book. It contains a lot of information but nothing special because other similar books also have such infos. I would recommend another book because I am too also refering to other sources for reference. If you are looking to learn VHDL in depth, please look else where. As for beginner, there are much better books out there for Digital Circuits design and VHDL. This is not a book worth its price. I sold it after my second year and I am glad I did it. Get yourself a book strictly on Digital Circuit alone, get the hardware basics in your head first, then get another book strictly on VHDL. This should gives you a fair depth into the Digital Design.

I'm currently using this book for a Digital Design class and I have yet to be impressed. Though this book has lots of useful information it phrases it in such a way that you have to be a rocket scientist to understand it. As for the VHDL you're supposed to be learning from this book it stinks. I work the problems at the end of the chapters for practice and constantly have problems finding the answers in the text or finding example VHDL code that is relavent to the problem I'm trying to answer. In short I do not recommend this book.

great, even had the disk and was in terrific shape! Exactly what I needed for class! Would definitely purchase from this buyer again

I have taken one computer programming course prior to using this book, It was rough to say the least. The biggest problem with the book is not the content but rather the way at which its presented. It will tell you to refer to diagrams on different pages quite frequently when trying to understand what there trying to get across and most times you'll forget what the point of looking on the other pages were. I ended up using a different book to understand the content and it helped way more than this one because the manner in which it was written was a lot more logical. There is a lot of fluff and wasted reading in this book and it doesn't get to the point of what you need to know or how to learn it.

This textbook is well written, with lots of good examples and problems. The included CD has software that is about two major versions old -- better to download it. But it also has code for all the coding examples in the book, which, if you want to run them, can save lots of time and typos. One needs an Altera DE-2 demo board on which to run them (about $270 for academic users [with pretty restrictive licensing], $495 for commercial users).

This introductory book in digital logic certainly did its job. It begins with simple examples before discussing harder material in a clear and concise manner. As for the VHDL component, though you will not become a master at VHDL by simply reading this book, it certainly gives you a good first experience with it. As a reference book it's loaded with practical examples.

This "textbook" has very few and skimpy examples of
how to work problems.
It also has a solution book which is not available to
students!!!
Therefore, the student cannot check his/her answers to
the review exercises at the end of the chapters!! Huh???
I can't believe that any school or instructor would choose this
this as a textbook or even as an additional reference!!!