Verilog Digital Computer Design : Algorithms Into Hardware

Rating:
Summary: Not a great first book on Verilog
Review: Although the book does cover most of the basics in Verilog, its terrible organization of Verilog topics renders the book almost useless as a good reference to the Verilog language. Stick with Palnitkar's book for this purpose. As far as I have seen the author's implicit style of Verilog code is not recommended in the industry, nor could I find any compelling reason why it should be. The author's use of ASMs is very good and a useful tool when mastered. The information regarding computer design is solid but having a copy of the classics by Hennessy and Patterson nearby is always useful. I would recommend this book to the Verilog designer that is interested in computer design but not as a first book on either topic.

Rating:
Summary: A good introductin to ASM and Implicit style Verilog
Review: ASM and Verilog are cool stuff for digital designers, however implicit style Verilog is unlikely to be widely adopted. Sythesis tools do not support this style.

Rating:
Summary: Gets you off to a running start
Review: I got this book as a quick tutorial on the Verilog language. After just a day or two with this book and a compiler to play with, I had the level of skill that I wanted. The Verilog language description is just one chapter in this book, though, and not even the longest one.

This is lots more than just a language book. It also shows a higher level of design than most students see in their first few logic courses. The example developed in the book's later sections works up to a supersclar ARM processor core! This book is not about hooking up a few gates and latches. It actually starts to address problems of practical size and complexity. Big problems really are different from small ones, and I was very happy to see techniques for the larger systems.

That said, beginning logic designers may find the book frustrating. It works at a high conceptual level and fast pace. The author assumes that the reader already has good command of the basics of boolean logic, synchronous design, and computer architecture.

Initially, I just wanted a competent language description. I got that, plus some worthwhile design technique. Best of all, I did not have to sit through yet another lesson in the baby steps of logic design.

Rating:
Summary: enlightening!
Review: this book is an insightful and exciting introduction to hardware
design, especially to those like me with a software background.
the author illuminates the difference between hardware and
software specification, and demonstrates how his "implicit"
(RTL) approach works well for (synthesis of) pipelined CPU designs.
the only deficit is that some of the free tools listed in the
appendix are no longer available.