Rating: Summary: A very nice book on Digital Design Review: It is not an easy task to write a book that guides the reader from the very basic knowledge to the understanding the advanced problems of digital design and to keep the reader not to get it off for many hours. This book shows it is possible. It covers all that is necessary to master the digital design and contains answers to many questions that are usually not discussed in other similar books - e.g. why a latch and not a flipflop is used to store address in a microcomputer, and a lot of others. The ABEL and VHDL languages that are explained here help the reader to keep up with the modern design tools. Many examples illustrate the theoretical exposition that is (up to several minor exceptions) clear and comprehensible. I think it is the best book I have ever read in this field.
Rating: Summary: Don't Buy This Book Review: It seems that the author is preaching to the engineering choir because it is written for people who seem to already know the subject. Furthermore, it seems that the author has a sick desire to tell everyone how smart he is by taking a simple subject and making it as hard as possible. There is no intention of teaching the subject and its only purpose is to tell you that it exists. With the exception of a few good tables/examples, much of the writing and diagrams are crammed in an endless, sloppy soup of paragraphs and over inflated jargon. Concepts are NOT taught in a structured, simplistic, thorough, or systematic approach, so using this book as a quick reference would be difficult as well. Problem examples are few and are buried within the text. I did NOT find any humor in the pages but did find the material to be as exciting as watching paint dry. Concept instruction, which seems simple at first, quickly degenerates to the point that the rest of the chapter no longer makes any sense. Freshman students in Computer Science, who are forced to use this book by their university, will find it difficult to comprehend to the point of becoming discouraged and thinking this major is not for them. I highly recommend finding a supplement to this book and purchasing a used copy if its use is mandatory.
Rating: Summary: Don't Buy This Book Review: It seems that the author is preaching to the engineering choir because it is written for people who seem to already know the subject. Furthermore, it seems that the author has a sick desire to tell everyone how smart he is by taking a simple subject and making it as hard as possible. There is no intention of teaching the subject and its only purpose is to tell you that it exists. With the exception of a few good tables/examples, much of the writing and diagrams are crammed in an endless, sloppy soup of paragraphs and over inflated jargon. Concepts are NOT taught in a structured, simplistic, thorough, or systematic approach, so using this book as a quick reference would be difficult as well. Problem examples are few and are buried within the text. I did NOT find any humor in the pages but did find the material to be as exciting as watching paint dry. Concept instruction, which seems simple at first, quickly degenerates to the point that the rest of the chapter no longer makes any sense. Freshman students in Computer Science, who are forced to use this book by their university, will find it difficult to comprehend to the point of becoming discouraged and thinking this major is not for them. I highly recommend finding a supplement to this book and purchasing a used copy if its use is mandatory.
Rating: Summary: A VALUABLE REFERENCE MATERIAL FOR DESIGNERS Review: Some may disagree with MY statements because they are merely...just STUdents. I had this text as a student and have found it to be helpful in understanding Logic Design. I agree that the jokes were CORNY. However, the depth of material provided by Mr. Wakerly are excellent. Not many text discuss and provide timing diagrams and how such diagrams relate to the device. The concept of timing analysis and diagrams are far more important than the design methodology, besides Wakerly also does highlight the design process better than other text I have read. The only problem is that he does not state whether it is an example or not. I have used this text in class and at work, and I have found it a VALUABLE REFERENCE MATERIAL. I have used it several times as reference in CPLD and Logic Design.If you believe any negative comments, I suggest that you try borrowing the second edition and skim through it...I WAS WORTH THE DOLLAR AMOUNT. Besides, a novice/student may not even know the difference since one is fairly new to the trade!
Rating: Summary: Awesome text Review: Takes you through a trip from the basics of Karnaugh maps all the way to sequential logic design and beyond. A fun read too, with excellent problems.
Rating: Summary: Not a good book for nonECE students >:( Review: The first four to five chapters are ok. You actually get a chance to learn something useful, like binary arythmetic and switching algebra, as well as how to build some basic circuits (although I often had to search the web for the additional explanation). After that, however, the material becomes so complex and confusing, that after reading it I usually was like "Uh, what did he just talk about?" All in all, I think that the ECE class was a waste of time and I wander why we had to take it in the first place.
Rating: Summary: Too rigid, too formal and very dry Review: There is no doubt that Wakerly' book is the most popular digital design book used for U.S universities, but that doesn't mean that his book is the best. In my opinion, Wakerly' book is too formal. He doesn't make it easy for you to understand simple concept. For example: He describes a multiplexer with a sigma notation. While it is technically correct, it is not the most intuitive way to teach a beginner. Moreover, as the author admitted himself in the preface, he put a lot of unnecessary and seldom used topic just to make his book thick. A lot of advanced topic introduced much too early, making his book very intimidating and confusing for beginners. A lot of schematics in the book are given as is without clear explanation. This book is too much for beginner and too little for experts. A new edition is coming up later this year, hopefully the author listens to my suggestion.
Rating: Summary: This book rocks Review: This book is excellent. It covers everything there is to know about Digital Design and does it in style. Wakerly has gone down and covered every basic detail and this makes your concepts crystal-clear. There is just the right amount of humour in the book to keep you going. The writing style is good too, it feels like you're actually listening to somebody teach. I think Wakerly has done an amazing job and this is the first and the last book which you'll need for this subject (atleast at the undergrad level).
Rating: Summary: Garbage...utter garbage Review: This book skips from topic to topic and the author's CORNY jokes interupt difficult parts of the book. ONLY buy this 800 page piece of garbage if your Professor makes you and its too expensive to transfer out of your school. Otherwise enjoy the 70+ page chapters of nonsense. The only reason I give it one star is because I'm not allowed to give it 0 stars!!
Rating: Summary: Complete, funny and useful Review: This is about the best book on Digital Design I've had in my hands. It was strongly recommended by our professor, and the whole class totally agreed after a few weeks. It is complete since I had a class that was half a Digital Design course. I found every topics treated in a complete and detailed way. It is useful, because in my opinion the included Xilinx Software alone worths the whole price. It is a powerful tool that lets you put in practice what you've learned from the book. And it is as funny as a book on this subject can be ... one can learn it from the first pages. This helps taking the book in your hands even when studying is not exactly the funniest thing you could do. The overall quality, hence, remains 5 stars from me even if ... printing errors have been sometime very annoying. I think the Updated Edition should be a good remedy to this drawback.
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