Customer Reviews

The Student's Guide to VHDL (Systems on Silicon)

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

 

 

This book only suitable for someone who has already had the idea of programming VHDL. It mentions only the syntax of single instructions, and lacks example circuits to simulate. The author seems don't know that students are not familiar with VHDL programming structure and need more examples to follow. After reading the whole book, I still could not succeed in compliling my VHDL scripts, and waste my time in reading error messages on VHDL simulator. Finally, I duscarded the book and bought "VHDL for Programmable Logic" as my textbook, which helps me alot but mentions little testbench programming.

This book can only be used as a reference. It describes the syntax of VHDL but does not really explain its semantics through examples. If you have never used VHDL, this book will not help you that much -- it is not met for a beginner.

A competent text for VHDL language & syntax, but not intended for hardware design. One is expected to have some design background upon using this text. Therefore, the text should have been titled as a "Syntax Guide to VHDL."

Good price, but so little to offer. My advice is to buy the "Designer's Guide to VHDL." I ended up getting this textbook to use as reference after using the student version (I sold the student version back). It is the exact same textbook with extra added feature...kinda like the Toyota Camry DLX version of the Camry platform!

Overall, there are other textbooks better than Ashenden's....ones that have more design-based examples such as a system arbiter or floppy disk controller. Earlier reviews are correct but a bit harsh.

Try VHDL Primer by J. Bhjasker. Bhasker is an IEEE chair of the HDL Interoperability Group and would an authoritative voice in the HDL community.

Good luck and happy reading!

This text book failed in its attempt to teach VHDL to students. A very futile effort. I wasted monetary resource for something that I did not benefit from. After reading through text, I was utterly digusted that all I learned was the VHDL syntax, but NO REAL APPLICATION presented. My honest feeling is that I was ripped-off.

My advice to the one who wishes to buy this book is NOT TO BUY THIS BOOK. If you don't believe me, read the other people who also commented on buying this book. Better yet, buy the book and suffer the same as I did.

Don't listen to the other reviews of this book which give it poor ratings. It is an excellent text for it's intended audience, those studying VHDL as part of their course. If you are in this position this book is exceptional value for money. If you are not and want the complete guide to VHDL then you should fork out the extra $'s for The designers guide to VHDL also by the same author which is the authoritive guide on the subject and is also presented in a exceptional manner, not seen in other texts of its nature.

I have found The Student's Guide to VHDL to be extremely helpful in learing VHDL from scratch. The rich amount of examples and highlighting of key words helps newcomers recognize the verbose and strict syntax of VHDL. This book is like a condensed version of the Developer's Guide by Ashenden and is wonderful for getting started in this language. For the price of this book and Ashenden's Developer's guide you can get away with a lot more help and information than single , and more expensive, books from other authors.

I am an experienced Verilog HDL user and expert logic designer. I just wanted a book that would explain the basic syntax of VHDL. This book did the job. One topic missing that should have been included was "file I/O". For that glaring omission -> 4 stars! If you are looking for a VHDL book that teaches the language and how to apply it to logic synthesis, test benches, or behavorial modeling ... it ain't here ... syntax guide only people!

I wanted to learn VHDL so I took the initiative of buying this book since the it was a "student's" version. I thought that it would lay a strong foundation in VHDL. It turned out that this was merely a syntax guide!!! Examples were okay, but more real-world examples would have been preferred. I agree that this book is "not worth the price" for any beginner in VHDL since it would probably bring confusion rather than knowledge. I am still in search for a better text...one which will imprt a good, sound knowledge in VHDL -- caveat emptor.

I purchased this book for because it was recommended by our instructor. At first, it was an interesting text, but as I progressed on reading, frustration came along. His examples are alright, but a more realistic and graphical example would have been preferred. I think that there are other texts that would is FAR BETTER than this one!

This was the required book for our VHDL class in EE. Many bought it and have discovered that it was very dry, boring, and somewhat disorganized--a big disappointment. In plain words, IT STINKS (as all of my colleagues agreed)! Its an inexpensive version of "The Designer's Guide to VHDL."

If you really want to learn VHDL, I recommend "VHDL for Programmble Logic" by Kevin Skahill--100x better. I bought it and have no regret of the purchase--a great investment.