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Rating: 
Summary: An unusual approach towards circuit design and HDLs
Review: When this book appeared in 1995, I had a look at it, but I did not buy it. Why not ?Wirth describes the basics of modern circuit design without going too much into the electrical details. After a short look at transistors (bipolar and FET) he goes to gates (NAND/NOR/NOT) and shows how to create building blocks like multiplexers, ROM and RAM with them. This presentation culminates in the description of a simple microprocessor core. But it looked a bit too elementary at first sight. Nevertheless, 3 years later I bought the book, started reading it and still enjoy reading it. Why this change of view ? What I overlooked at first sight was the HDL that Wirth introduces after the presentation of the building blocks in chapter 7. This language is called Lola (Logic Language) and is much simpler than VHDL, Verilog and even simpler than Abel. Lola looks a bit like the other languages Wirth created (Pascal, Modula, Oberon). In the second half of the book, he uses this language to specify his processor design and some peripherals (like a UART). These readable and concise designs together with the unique approach to circuit design are the main reasons why I can recommend this book. Warning: If you want to learn a HDL that is widely accepted in the industry, learn VHDL, Verilog or Abel. Lola is the outgrowth of an academic project and will not enable you to earn much money in the industry. But I like it and the book.
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