Electronic Design Automation Books

I found this book by chance in the library in our company. I'd studied aerospace engineering and specialised in flight control about 7 years earlier, and this book was perfect for me. It provided a refresher of the basics, and was a good introduction to the more advanced concepts like LQR, H-infinity control, etc., as well as helping me dust off my Matlab skills. But it might not be the best book for newcomers to the subject - but it does complement other books (like Ogata, Stevens and Lewis) very well.

I loved the book.
Great explanations.
Not a complete first book in controls though. It helps to have a little more background or have read one of the standard control's texts.

A book that gives a good overall picture of the Siemens Simatic S7 200/300/400. It may help engineers and technicians who are working with this product to understand many other configurations of Siemens automation products. Not a book if you are only interested in how to program S7 PLC.

Device modelling takes up a large part of this book. It shows how the physics at the submicron is driving advances in this field. But it also shows how various approximations made in the modelling, often for computational tradeoffs, might lead to uncertainty in the final results. Overall, though, the tone of the book is certainly positive. The putting of an entire computational system on a single chip is continuing to make strides. In no small part by the efforts of the authors who have contributed to this text.

Some of the writing is a little rough. Probably due to slight misphrasings when being translated into English.

I found it well organized and providing a very good overview of present technology, ideas and devices available today.

No math, but a lot of good illustrations and concepts.

A intermediate book for ASIC designers and CAD professionals. Slightly out of date but definitely gives a good overview of the problem and solution space.

So Far I have been using it alot to figure out how to program the assembly for a pic, very useful

I took Dr. Peatman's class in college with this book, and I think this book would have done better if he had bundled the Class Lab book. The class lab book and actually having the hardware in front of you made the book make a whole lot more sense. I can see how some of the other readers may have been disappointed because with out the hardware in front of you its a bit difficult to really understand whats going on. I think this book is great as a reference if you have a PIC controller to play around with, but I would not recommend this book to some one who is looking for a "PIC microprocessors for Dummies" type book.

This book is basically an over-priced college text. ... On the other hand, there are a few good practical applications illustrated. The author choose to place a special emphasis on timing issues.

This was the first book I used when starting out with PICs. I found that it was not the smoothest reading book out there, but it got me up and running. The first program in the book to make an LED blink on and off looks like the source code to a 3D modeling program, that aside I found myself thumbing through this book constantly to learn how to use the onboard periferals of a mid range PIC. I give it a fair rating for learning and a good rating for reference.

This might be a suitable reference for someone who is already intimately familiar with PIC microcontrollers but it way too advanced for beginners. From the first page the author assumes you already know alot about microprocessors including the lingo.
The writing style is just dreadful, with sentences that run on and on in a prose that would leave Yoda confused. This is not a fun read about what should be a fun subject.
Beginners will find the book too obtuse and advanced users need nothing more than the device datasheets so the book is pointless.

I thought this was an amusing book that described a collection of neat ideas. Most of them are not too technically sophisticated so that you could have come up with the design yourself if you are a technical person, using web resources, but the value was in the idea itself and the way it is suggested.

Since I am a computer engineer I was hoping to find that this book offered some home projects let alone hacks. First let me state that this book doesn't offer any "Hacking Projects". To be honest it barely offers any "Home projects". Fortunately for me I have a friend who is an electrical engineer. This book is extremely misleading. More than half of the projects listed in this book simply can not be accomplished because the projects mentioned severely lack the required information or were never honestly tested to see if the might actually work. A good part of this book suggests you will need a skill set of 3 out of 5 to accomplish a given task. What it doesn't say it that you will need significantly more money and electrical knowledge than this book will ever provide. Many of the projects listed here are extremely costly and provide little advantage to some running it through a computer. In addition, you will have to know a computer language [Pearl] in order to get remote benefit from any project. Having looked over the Pear scripts I have found some mistakes in the programming. It seems to me that O'Reilly just wanted to sell a book.

A great deal of the projects in this book are basically various forms of X10 module automation. The projects include how to automate a light with motion sensing, how to remotely monitor your pet, creating a whole house audio or time shifted audio, a keyless entry system, and intrusion detection and deterrence. For each project the items are detailed, the software described in detail, information is included on where to locate them, assembly instructions, scripts, and everything else you need to complete it. Only basic skills are needed for each project. Each project includes information on estimated cost, time and difficulty ratings so you can easily decide which ones you will tackle and which ones you may not want to. Home Hacking Projects for Geeks is recommended to anyone wanting to have a little fun with home electronics.

Home Hacking Projects for Geeks is a really fun book to read which also provides instructions on how to perform some very interesting home improvements. This book reminded me a little bit of O'Reilly's other book "Smart Home Hacks", only the hacks in this book are not all specifically smart-home related. In any case, some of the hacks in the other book mentioned are also found in this book. "Home Hacking Projects", however, does contain some fun projects I haven't seen anywhere else.

Some of the more interesting projects in this book include how to remotely monitor your pet, creating time shifted radio, and how to make your home talk. One thing I really enjoyed about this book is that examples are provided for both a Linux and Windows environment. Additionally, configuration information is provided for your router, if the completed project is to be accessible from outside your home network.

While there are some projects included in this book that you might find elsewhere, this book does an excellent job of providing clear and detailed instructions, including wiring diagrams (if applicable), screen shots of configuration information, and a lot of other things that make the successful completion of these projects much more likely. You'll have a blast automating your home with this book.

Nothing in the splash page, back cover or anywhere with info letting you know it is almost 100% about the X10 hardware. I already own a house full of X10 stuff, so the fact that I wasted money on this book burns my soul. Not one thing deals with how to set up, rig or configure any of the projects without having to spend money on whichever X-10 product will do the job. If I wanted that I would just buy the product and read the installation guide that comes with it.
The author suckered me into buying the book... don't let him sucker you!

I bought this book to help bring me up to speed on PLCs. I have several years working in electronics and other engineering disciplines, but almost no system control experience.

I did learn a few things from this book and it was helpful. However, there are some serious mistakes in the book. There are several details that are simply wrong, which makes this book a poor choice for people with little to no prior knowledge in the field.

Bolton does a great job with an intro to PLCs. The book is great for a comprehensive introduction to PLCs. I needed inexpensive, yet solid course material, for an adult ed course. This book has been perfect for providing easy to digest material for folks who need familiarity with PLCs.

This is a great book for beginning PLC programmers, but there are numerouse errors throughout the book which cause confusion when trying to understand the use of Internal Relays, Timers and Counters. Use caution and refer back to the text when completing the tests at the end of each section and when reading about how some ladder logic is functioning, I noticed miss-labled Inputs.

I did not get any benefits of this book, sadly.

It is useless with Siemens S7 and you want to learn the STL language.

To few examples with this language.

Sorry

This is a very good introduction for those who have no personal experience with plc's. It does not focus on one brand, but introduces the reader to various manufacturers and the way each functions in comparison to each other. It is great for understanding the capabilities of PLC's. Further information is needed to learn to program and design with plc's.

I found this book very helpful in gaining a deeper understanding of what the tools I use are doing. Also, the terminology that is used and explained allows me to easier communication with the CAD developers. I found the information relating to clock skew and jitter of particular value to my daily work.

I read the Chapter on clock routing and found that the
author did not do a good job on explaining about DME
algorithm. I got more confused after reading it. So,
I went to the library and checked the references
which gave me clear understanding. Usually, a book
shoud give a reader with a very clear example about
the algorithm it presents. It's was not the case for
the DME algorithm.

This book is good at introducing basic concepts, if this is what
you want to know. But it is really bad to introduce algorithm.
It simply confuse you. Many time I don't know what the author
is talking about and have to find the original paper, which is
much clear.

Very comprehensive in VLSI physical design automation. People who major in Computer Science and want to study in VLSI is suitable to buy this book. Also people who want to develop EDA tools can buy the book.

This publisher states items included in the purchase on the back cover but does not deliver.

Not a bad reference for most users. It is a little basic and some of the info is dated. It's a little weak in more advanced areas like indiredt addressing, use and construction of subroutines, but otherwise this is a good book to keep in a general library for technicians responsible for supporting PLC based systems.

I have used this text in our PLC class for three years. I really like that it is specific to Allan Bradley products. The workbook that goes with this text has programming assignments to reinforce the concepts. As I train on AB SLC500s exclusively, it is almost ideal. I say almost becaue there are many references to obsolete instructions used with a PLC no longer manufactured. It is due for a new edition. But until then, it remains a very good text to teach from, or if you simply want to know more about the subject.

The text used in conjunction with the accompanny study guide were required text for an automation and control class. No errors noted, very easy and comprehensive reading. An excellent reference manual. One of the best required text books I have used.