Product Description
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are devices that provide a fast, low-cost way for embedded system designers to customize products and deliver new versions with upgraded features, because they can handle very complicated functions, and be reconfigured an infinite number of times. In addition to introducing the various architectural features available in the latest generation of FPGAs, The Design Warrior's Guide to FPGAs also covers different design tools and flows.

This book covers information ranging from schematic-driven entry, through traditional HDL/RTL-based simulation and logic synthesis, all the way up to the current state-of-the-art in pure C/C++ design capture and synthesis technology. Also discussed are specialist areas such as mixed hardward/software and DSP-based design flows, along with innovative new devices such as field programmable node arrays (FPNAs).

Clive "Max" Maxfield is a bestselling author and engineer with a large following in the electronic design automation (EDA)and embedded systems industry. In this comprehensive book, he covers all the issues of interest to designers working with, or contemplating a move to, FPGAs in their product designs. While other books cover fragments of FPGA technology or applications this is the first to focus exclusively and comprehensively on FPGA use for embedded systems.

* First book to focus exclusively and comprehensively on FPGA use in embedded designs

* World-renowned best-selling author

* Will help engineers get familiar and succeed with this new technology by providing much-needed advice on choosing the right FPGA for any design project

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 21 reviews)

It's not too bad, but only for specific audiences

I read through this book on a whim a while ago when I started getting into reconfigurable computing, and since then have gone up the 'food chain' so to speak. This book isn't that bad, in fact for total neophytes to FPGAs and EDA in general, it's a fairly lightweight but pretty comprehensive introduction.

It includes a fairly basic overview of the FPGA architectures, HDLs, C/C++/SystemC design flows, a brief description of simulation and verification, and other random tidbits here and there. Almost no math required, just a high level introduction and overview.

That said, it probably is best targeted towards business / marketing types who don't want to be total idiots to their engineering staffs. Also undergraduates or new engineers who want a light introduction to the FPGA industry and design process might benefit.

Anyone obviously who is already a design engineer or whatever won't find much use here. Then again I would question why someone with lots of experience would read a book titled "Design Warrior's Guide." Shouldn't you guys be reading the latest papers from DAC or ICCAD?

For a more technical overview of EDA in general, a good series is the EDA for IC Design series. But it's probably too technical for the audience this book is targeting.

August 04, 2007

Mostly fluff

This book contains little if any practical information with respect to real world FPGA design.
June 28, 2007

NOT much of use

I bought this book because I needed it for my class. But this book was not that useful as it covers justs the general aspects of the FPGA which you can easily find on the internet. Most of the chapter was not at all worthy to read it.
June 27, 2007

An Excellent Introduction and History of FPGAs

This is a terrific book!

I received this book at a seminar on logic synthesis for FPGAs. I found the book absolutely delightful to read, enjoyed the timelines in the margins, and the excellent readability of the text. Also, I implemented a couple of the book's suggestions in my current FPGA device. The debug signal mux for example. I had been recompiling the design each time I needed to examine a different section of the logic. However, by implementing a four-port debug mux, I was able to test various sections of the device without running the recompile sequence each time. This is something I really should have thought of myself, so I appreciate the book's describing this approach as it is saving me a lot of time, wasted effort, and frustration.

June 02, 2007

The Middle-Manager's Guide to Sounding Like You Know Something About FPGAs

I am an EE with no previous FPGA experience. Some of the reviews here made me think this book might be a good stepping stone. Completely wrong. The title of the book is misleading, in my opinion. For the engineer wanting to get started using FPGAs this book is utterly without merit. Why did I give it any stars then? Well, I'm assuming that the nebulously defined 'wide audience' the book was really written for is non-technical managers who need enough of an understanding of common acronyms and terminology to impress their even-less-technical bosses, accounting, and HR people and to be able to relay communications without garbling the message too badly. The author devotes a tremendous amount of space to making sure you know how to pronounce the relevant acronyms like 'FPGA', 'SRAM', etc. The author also sedulously avoids any 'brass tacks' kind of information in an effort to keep his book from becoming obsolete too soon. In my opinion this strategy is like making something useless to begin with, so it won't *become* useless later. Having read this book (it's a fast read: low information density, much repetition, large margins (for acronym pronunciation and largely irrelevant history trivia), and big print.) I think a manager needing a survey of FPGAs and especially terminology might find this useful. To anyone wanting to actually implement something in an FPGA look somewhere else.
May 13, 2007

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Circuit Design with VHDL
by Volnei A. Pedroni

Designing with FPGAs and CPLDs
by Robert Zeidman

Advanced FPGA Design: Architecture, Implementation, and Optimization
by Steve Kilts

Rapid System Prototyping with FPGAs: Accelerating the Design Process (Embedded Technology)
by RC Cofer, Benjamin F. Harding

Practical FPGA Programming in C (Prentice Hall Modern Semiconductor Design Series' Sub Series: PH Signal Integrity Library)
by David Pellerin, Edward A. Thibault