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Introduction to digital logic design
Microelectronics Journal, Vol. 25, No. 5
concept of randomness in general is discussed and how it can be synthesized. Next, probability and probability distributions are considered, with emphasis on some techniques for generating random numbers with particular distributions. A number of specific probability distributions are then covered, along with the applicable generating functions from the simulation library. The succeeding chapters show the implementation of modelling primitives and give examples to illustrate their use. First, in Chapter 6, it is shown how objects in the real system can be modelled in terms of entities and resources and the facilities provided by the simulation library to handle them. Next, in Chapter 7, the scheduler is considered and two scheduling algorithms are explored and, finally, the concept o f queues is introduced and considered for use in simulation models (Chapter 8). The generation and presentation of the results of the discrete event simulation model are discussed in Chapter 9. The resulting evaluation and conclusion is the important phase after the implementation of the simulation model; this is discussed in Chapters 10 and 11. Finally, a case study concerning the performance of the Ethernet protocol is presented in Chapter 12. •
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/
There are three appendices. Appedices A and B are alphabetic references to all functions provided in the library, while Appendix C contains the tables of statistical functions which are referred to in the text. Each chapter is concluded by a summary and exercises which reinforce the principal topics covered in the chapter. It is important to underline that the accompanying DOS formatted disk contains example models and a complete and powerful C simulation library which can be used for real simulations. Last, but not least, the book is written in a comprehensive manner, and the illustrative examples are clear and useful. In addition this book may be a very good reference for advanced C programming, prepared by a very experienced author.
V.B. IJ"tovski and M. Damnjanovic
Introduction to VLSI Technology T.E. Price, Prentice Hall, London, 1994, 280 pp., ~17.95 (paperback) This is a useful educational book dealing with the technology of manufacture o f VLSI circuits, covering fundamental physics through to photolithography, device structures, circuit elements, yield, and quality and reliability. It does not touch at all upon VLSI system design, E C A D and all the day-to-day requirements o f the system designer using the capabilities of VLSI technology. The seventeen reasonably self-contained chapters cover device physics, device fabrication and basic circuit elements. Bipolar circuit elements are given as much treatment as MOS, but BiCMOS is not covered. Gallium arsenide and o t h e r m o r e uncommon technologies are also addressed. This is very much a standard undergraduate textbook for electronic students, but could be appropriate for industrial system designers to give them a ready coverage of the basics of the ICs which they may be designing or specifying. It style of writing is very clear, with good supporting illustrations. The paperback price is also attractive.
S.L. Hurst
Introduction to Digital Logic Design J.P. Hayes, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1993, 813 pp., ~,22.95 The 1970s saw a range of good textbooks published on digital logic, but the 1980s tended to rely upon these earlier texts. Now, in the 1990s, we are seeing a number of new and comprehensive texts appearing, which bring the subject up-to-date for both students and practising engineers. This particular text, by Professor John Hayes of the U n i v e r s i t y o f M i c h i g a n , is a v e r y w o r t h y contribution to our bookshelves, taking the reader through from basic concepts to register-level design and systems architecutre, it is largely tutorial in style, with good figures and worked examples throughout.
403
Practicalities are kept well to the fore, including programmable logic devices and other MSI building blocks. It covers very well the basic timing requirements of all types of clocked flip-flops, and distinguishes clearly between edge-triggered and other forms of latches and flip-flops which many texts fail to do. This is a very highly recommended book written by an author with extensive teaching experience, which will be useful not only to students but also to design engineers who may require some refreshment or update of their digital fundamentals. Its price is also very attractive.
M.S. Harris
Digital Electronics J. Uffenbeck, Prentice Hall, NJ, 1994, 599pp., £51.95 This second text on digital logic being reviewed here is, like the previous book, a largely tutorial coverage of digital logic principle. It covers the basic ideas of binary number and Boolean algebra through to programmable logic devices. Extensive in-text examples and supporting illustrations are present. However, unlike the previous text, it does not extend to any coverage of somewhat more advanced topics, such as m i n i m i z a t i o n o f state assignments, asynchronous machine design, hardware-descriptive languages, design for test, and similar topics, but instead concentrates much more on how standard off-the-shelf ICs, particularly TTL 7000-series, are used for relatively simple design problems. To some extent, therefore, the two texts being reviewed here are complementary; Hayes is a much more academic text, whereas Uffenbeck may be more useful to cover the practicalities of design using standard parts. The emphasis upon TTL logic families with relatively brief mention of 74C series C M O S ICs is perhaps unfortunate, although T T L / C M O S interfacing is covered. Its cost will be its principle disadvantage in achieving wide adoption.
M.S. Harris
404
Field-Programmable Gate Array Technology S.M. Trimberger (ed.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, MA, 1994, 258 pp., US$82.00, £61.50, D.fl. 175. O0 The increasing practical significance of field-programmable logic devices in industry is reflected in the increasing number of books becoming available which are devoted entirely to this subject area. This latest publication joins some half-a-dozen predecessors, which now collectively cover all aspects of present-day PLD technology. This particular book is very strongly based upon current commerical product and example applications. The editor, Steven Trimberger of Xilinx Inc., introduces the subject, and provides the second chapter on static-RAM programmable FPGAs, the Xilinx products being the principal material of this chapter. Two authors from Actel Corp. provide the third chapter, and, as may be expected, they cover in detail the Actel range of devices and some example applications. Altera Corp. provides the author of the final Chapter 4, covering the company's erasablep r o g r a m m a b l e l o g i c d e v i c e s and e x a m p l e applications. In total, therefore, we have the principal PLD product contenders talking about their own wares in an obviously authoritative manner. It is, however, difficult to decide to whom this book will appeal. There are texts for student use on PLDs that are preferable to this rather commercially based one, but on the other hand the widely available design manuals from the individual companies already cover much of the technical information contained in this book. Its principal attraction is to have details o f the c o m p e t i n g p r o d u c t s comprehensively discussed (but not compared) in one publication. Whether the cost of the publication justifies this convenience, however, is perhaps debatable. M. S. Harris
concept of randomness in general is discussed and how it can be synthesized. Next, probability and probability distributions are considered, with emphasis on some techniques for generating random numbers with particular distributions. A number of specific probability distributions are then covered, along with the applicable generating functions from the simulation library. The succeeding chapters show the implementation of modelling primitives and give examples to illustrate their use. First, in Chapter 6, it is shown how objects in the real system can be modelled in terms of entities and resources and the facilities provided by the simulation library to handle them. Next, in Chapter 7, the scheduler is considered and two scheduling algorithms are explored and, finally, the concept o f queues is introduced and considered for use in simulation models (Chapter 8). The generation and presentation of the results of the discrete event simulation model are discussed in Chapter 9. The resulting evaluation and conclusion is the important phase after the implementation of the simulation model; this is discussed in Chapters 10 and 11. Finally, a case study concerning the performance of the Ethernet protocol is presented in Chapter 12. •
.
/
There are three appendices. Appedices A and B are alphabetic references to all functions provided in the library, while Appendix C contains the tables of statistical functions which are referred to in the text. Each chapter is concluded by a summary and exercises which reinforce the principal topics covered in the chapter. It is important to underline that the accompanying DOS formatted disk contains example models and a complete and powerful C simulation library which can be used for real simulations. Last, but not least, the book is written in a comprehensive manner, and the illustrative examples are clear and useful. In addition this book may be a very good reference for advanced C programming, prepared by a very experienced author.
V.B. IJ"tovski and M. Damnjanovic
Introduction to VLSI Technology T.E. Price, Prentice Hall, London, 1994, 280 pp., ~17.95 (paperback) This is a useful educational book dealing with the technology of manufacture o f VLSI circuits, covering fundamental physics through to photolithography, device structures, circuit elements, yield, and quality and reliability. It does not touch at all upon VLSI system design, E C A D and all the day-to-day requirements o f the system designer using the capabilities of VLSI technology. The seventeen reasonably self-contained chapters cover device physics, device fabrication and basic circuit elements. Bipolar circuit elements are given as much treatment as MOS, but BiCMOS is not covered. Gallium arsenide and o t h e r m o r e uncommon technologies are also addressed. This is very much a standard undergraduate textbook for electronic students, but could be appropriate for industrial system designers to give them a ready coverage of the basics of the ICs which they may be designing or specifying. It style of writing is very clear, with good supporting illustrations. The paperback price is also attractive.
S.L. Hurst
Introduction to Digital Logic Design J.P. Hayes, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1993, 813 pp., ~,22.95 The 1970s saw a range of good textbooks published on digital logic, but the 1980s tended to rely upon these earlier texts. Now, in the 1990s, we are seeing a number of new and comprehensive texts appearing, which bring the subject up-to-date for both students and practising engineers. This particular text, by Professor John Hayes of the U n i v e r s i t y o f M i c h i g a n , is a v e r y w o r t h y contribution to our bookshelves, taking the reader through from basic concepts to register-level design and systems architecutre, it is largely tutorial in style, with good figures and worked examples throughout.
403
Practicalities are kept well to the fore, including programmable logic devices and other MSI building blocks. It covers very well the basic timing requirements of all types of clocked flip-flops, and distinguishes clearly between edge-triggered and other forms of latches and flip-flops which many texts fail to do. This is a very highly recommended book written by an author with extensive teaching experience, which will be useful not only to students but also to design engineers who may require some refreshment or update of their digital fundamentals. Its price is also very attractive.
M.S. Harris
Digital Electronics J. Uffenbeck, Prentice Hall, NJ, 1994, 599pp., £51.95 This second text on digital logic being reviewed here is, like the previous book, a largely tutorial coverage of digital logic principle. It covers the basic ideas of binary number and Boolean algebra through to programmable logic devices. Extensive in-text examples and supporting illustrations are present. However, unlike the previous text, it does not extend to any coverage of somewhat more advanced topics, such as m i n i m i z a t i o n o f state assignments, asynchronous machine design, hardware-descriptive languages, design for test, and similar topics, but instead concentrates much more on how standard off-the-shelf ICs, particularly TTL 7000-series, are used for relatively simple design problems. To some extent, therefore, the two texts being reviewed here are complementary; Hayes is a much more academic text, whereas Uffenbeck may be more useful to cover the practicalities of design using standard parts. The emphasis upon TTL logic families with relatively brief mention of 74C series C M O S ICs is perhaps unfortunate, although T T L / C M O S interfacing is covered. Its cost will be its principle disadvantage in achieving wide adoption.
M.S. Harris
404
Field-Programmable Gate Array Technology S.M. Trimberger (ed.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, MA, 1994, 258 pp., US$82.00, £61.50, D.fl. 175. O0 The increasing practical significance of field-programmable logic devices in industry is reflected in the increasing number of books becoming available which are devoted entirely to this subject area. This latest publication joins some half-a-dozen predecessors, which now collectively cover all aspects of present-day PLD technology. This particular book is very strongly based upon current commerical product and example applications. The editor, Steven Trimberger of Xilinx Inc., introduces the subject, and provides the second chapter on static-RAM programmable FPGAs, the Xilinx products being the principal material of this chapter. Two authors from Actel Corp. provide the third chapter, and, as may be expected, they cover in detail the Actel range of devices and some example applications. Altera Corp. provides the author of the final Chapter 4, covering the company's erasablep r o g r a m m a b l e l o g i c d e v i c e s and e x a m p l e applications. In total, therefore, we have the principal PLD product contenders talking about their own wares in an obviously authoritative manner. It is, however, difficult to decide to whom this book will appeal. There are texts for student use on PLDs that are preferable to this rather commercially based one, but on the other hand the widely available design manuals from the individual companies already cover much of the technical information contained in this book. Its principal attraction is to have details o f the c o m p e t i n g p r o d u c t s comprehensively discussed (but not compared) in one publication. Whether the cost of the publication justifies this convenience, however, is perhaps debatable. M. S. Harris