Fundamentals of Digital Logic with VHDL Design with CD-ROM

Rating:
Summary: Excellent coverage of logic theory, but not a VHDL bible
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Dated, Though Not All Bad
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Not a very good text
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: There are actually usable textbooks out there!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Examples as teaching aid is not good pedagogy
Review: Many people seem to like learning through examples. In programming books, readers crave for complete code. If you like learning by examples, this is the book for you. This book introduces finite state machines by giving the sequence recognizer example. This is poor pedagogy. A formal definition is needed, such as M = (S, I, O, f, g, s). Such a definition provides the student with a structure to design. By learning from an example, students have to try to find the structure, therefore one example is often not enough. This is why people crave for examples. If only authors could give a general overview and structure before jumping into business... I give this one star because of this "common" poor pedagogy problem.

Rating:
Summary: terrible
Review: 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!!!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for getting started.
Review: This book does an excellent job of covering the basics of digital logic circuits and chips, and a solid job of covering VHDL design. While some "newer" topics are not covered, that does not hinder this book, as it aims provide a fundamental understanding of Digital components and circuits, and VHDL.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for getting started.
Review: This book does an excellent job of covering the basics of digital logic circuits and chips, and a solid job of covering VHDL design. While some "newer" topics are not covered, that does not hinder this book, as it aims provide a fundamental understanding of Digital components and circuits, and VHDL.

Rating:
Summary: It does its job
Review: 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.