Designing with FPGAs and CPLDs [Paperback]

I found the book to be an mixture of high level concepts (how to test designs, design methodology) and low level (converting async. logic to sync.). With my little knowledge of Verilog this was fairly useful.

I can't help feeling that the book is aimed at engineering managers rather than engineers.

I liked the explanation of the internal structure of various PLDs. This gives a reasonable understanding of how these devices work, which is always a good thing. I also liked the design/test guidelines in Chapter 5. This gives a good overview of pitfalls and a basis for attacking a design, albeit quite briefly.

I didn't like the brevity and the 'overview' nature of much of the material. The book needs a big brother to actually get into the topics properly - I believe the Author has written a good book on Verilog so maybe that helps. I found the chapter on tools very dissappointing - it left me with a vague understanding of the various tools, but I would have liked a summary of available tools and information on costs and performance.

Taking out the questions and a few over-long code samples, the book has only around 150 pages of actual material, in fairly large print. It took 2-3 hours to read carefully.

Overall this book is a strange animal, but I found it fairly useful.

As the author (Bob Zeidman) points out, different sections of the book are intended for different audiences. For me, chapters 1 (history), 2 (CPLDS), and 5 (Design Techniques, Rules, and Guidelines) were the most important. I do not yet use FPGAs nor HDLs (though VHDL is in my near future). I never expect any book to answer all my questions; however, this one clearly answered the important questions I needed answered.

I used Altera's "MAX+PLUS II" tools to create, simulate (test) and program my circuit. Great tools, never crashed, excellent online help system and tutorials.

This book was critical in helping me design a reliable, testable, accurate circuit using synchronous design techniques. The circuit flies today in many business commuter aircraft.

By the way, there are some minor errors in the book (do you know of any books without errors?). I emailed Bob about it (the book gives you his URL and email address). Bob not only sent me errata information in like 2 hours, but provided an additional in depth explanation for an issue I was having with state machine design. Bob is also posting the errata info on his website - not THAT is customer service!

My only suggestion for future editions is give pointers to "where to go next". Having whet my appetite for programmable logic, the next thing I want to do is apply it! Fortunately there are a number of FPGA starter kits from all the major suppliers - but a chapter that reviews these or points the reader to them would be a welcome addition.