The Designer's Guide to VHDL, 2nd Edition

Rating:
Summary: Not a practical guide
Review: If you are an engineer, like me, wanting to teach yourself VHDL then this is NOT the book for you. The actual mechanics of how to write VHDL code is lost in all of the doctrine superfluously created by the author. The examples he gives in order to clarify points only serve to make the concepts more mysterious. The book fails to make the connection between the software world and what the results of the language are in hardware. The index is minimal and I found it practically useless. It is an exhaustive work with many exercises, but as for practicality--I give it a big thumbs down.

Rating:
Summary: Not a practical guide
Review: If you are an engineer, like me, wanting to teach yourself VHDL then this is NOT the book for you. The actual mechanics of how to write VHDL code is lost in all of the doctrine superfluously created by the author. The examples he gives in order to clarify points only serve to make the concepts more mysterious. The book fails to make the connection between the software world and what the results of the language are in hardware. The index is minimal and I found it practically useless. It is an exhaustive work with many exercises, but as for practicality--I give it a big thumbs down.

Rating:
Summary: No VHDL Simulator
Review: The book is OK but the VHDL simulator that comes with it is VAPORWARE.

Rating:
Summary: very good, as a reference
Review: The Designer's Guide to Vhdl, by Peter J. Ashenden is a very good book for all level of Vhdl programming. Tutors the basic to advance level programming in Vhdl. Extensively covers the Behavior Modeling by many examples and case studies. If you are looking something on synthesis, this book does not cover whole lot on it, but it's worth buying for reference since the price of the book is not that expensive compare to others.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book for Learning VHDL
Review: This book has a very detailed and complete coverage of the VHDL langauge. The book is clearly geared to the beginner and serves as a great tutorial on the language, however the depth is good enough that even a seasoned VHDL programmer will find it of good benefit both at increasing their depth in the language and also as a desk reference. My main criticism of the book is that I found it somewhat verbose in description on certain topics. While the detail is needed on the more complex or subtle topics, it seems to drag on with some of the more trivial ideas. In any case, the good clearly wins out in an overall must have VHDL reference.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, BUT with a practical caveat
Review: This book is really TOO good at teaching VHDL. It is excellent at conveying both the concepts AND details of good VHDL programming. The downside, which I don't think should be a mark against the author, is that most VHDL tools tend to support only a small subset of what this book teaches. So, when you begin applying what you've learned, you will likely find yourself re-learning the language as used by your particular implementation tools. However, I would definitely recommend that you learn it the right way first by reading this book, so you are prepared to understand the language no matter which implementation tools you use. Besides, I don't think there is any easier way to learn VHDL.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, BUT with a practical caveat
Review: This book is really TOO good at teaching VHDL. It is excellent at conveying both the concepts AND details of good VHDL programming. The downside, which I don't think should be a mark against the author, is that most VHDL tools tend to support only a small subset of what this book teaches. So, when you begin applying what you've learned, you will likely find yourself re-learning the language as used by your particular implementation tools. However, I would definitely recommend that you learn it the right way first by reading this book, so you are prepared to understand the language no matter which implementation tools you use. Besides, I don't think there is any easier way to learn VHDL.

Rating:
Summary: An opinion
Review: Though I have some background in VHDL, the amount of information you can gain from this book is exceptional. There are plenty of examples and the structure of the flow of information is well engineered However, the fact that it touches many topic in much detail can turn into a disadvantage for beginners.

Rating:
Summary: Very helpful
Review: Tired of rummaging through numerous VHDL books to find information on how to model computer architectures, processors, and pipeline architectures? Look no further, this one has it all! Easy to read, follow... to the point! Plenty of good examples! The included VHDL simulation software from FTL is a welcomed plus for students wanting to test their designs on their home pc before running them under some school simulator.
Nice job! Now, if someone could write a decent computer science graduate level book on Algorithm Design and Analysis...

Rating:
Summary: Best VHDL book for computer scientists!
Review: Tired of rummaging through numerous VHDL books to find information on how to model computer architectures, processors, and pipeline architectures? Look no further, this one has it all! Easy to read, follow... to the point! Plenty of good examples! The included VHDL simulation software from FTL is a welcomed plus for students wanting to test their designs on their home pc before running them under some school simulator.
Nice job! Now, if someone could write a decent computer science graduate level book on Algorithm Design and Analysis...