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The Designer's Guide to VHDL, Volume 3, Third Edition (Systems on Silicon) (Systems on Silicon)
by Peter J. Ashenden
[size=120%]The Designer's Guide to VHDL, Volume 3, Third Edition (Systems on Silicon) (Systems on Silicon)
By Peter J. Ashenden
- Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
- Number Of Pages: 936
- Publication Date: 2008-05-16
- ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0120887851
- ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780120887859
- Binding: Hardcover
Product Description:
VHDL, the IEEE standard hardware description language for describing digital electronic systems, has recently been revised. This book has become a standard in the industry for learning the features of VHDL and using it to verify hardware designs. This third edition is the first comprehensive book on the market to address the new features of VHDL-2008.
* First comprehensive book on VHDL to incorporate all new features of VHDL-2008, the latest release of the VHDL standard...helps readers get up to speed quickly with new features of the new standard.
* Presents a structured guide to the modeling facilities offered by VHDL...shows how VHDL functions to help design digital systems.
* Includes extensive case studies and source code used to develop testbenches and case study examples..helps readers gain maximum facility with VHDL for design of digital systems.
Amazon.com Review:
VHDL may sound like a new Internet language, but it really stands for VHSIC (Very High Speed Integrated Circuit) Hardware Definition Language. VHDL borrows ideas from software engineering (architectural, behavior, and formal models, as well as modular design) and is used to design today's custom integrated circuits, from cell phones to microwave ovens and even CPUs. Peter Ashenden's The Designer's Guide to VHDL shows you how to use this language to write a hardware design, which you can then test in a simulator before "synthesizing" it into an actual hardware design in silicon. The book begins with the basics of VHDL, which, like any software language, has keywords, operators, flow control statements, and programming conventions. Next, the author introduces his first case study--a "pipelined multiplier accumulator," which simulates a CPU register. He then moves on to more complicated models, such as a design for a complete CPU (the DLX processor, which is used as a model for educating future CPU designers). More advanced aspects of VHDL follow, including guard signals, abstract data types, and even file I/O. A final case study (for a "queuing network") puts these components into practice. The book closes with a discussion of "synthesizers"--additional software tools that convert a VHDL specification into silicon--and how these tools impose design limits. The appendices include Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) enhancements to VHDL, which have increased the design language's power. Although most of us won't ever need to design our own integrated circuit, this book shows how it's done. Engineering students who need to master VHDL during a semester-length course, will find Ashenden's guide to be indispensable--and written in an accessible style rarely found in engineering texts.
Summary: Best VHDL Reference
Rating: 5
This has been my definitive VHDL language reference for 6 or 7 years, now. I use it as I would K&R for the C language. It explains all the gory syntactical and structural details of a messy language.
I would agree that this text is not a "synthesis cookbook" for learning the best way to produce logic from code. But I do not think that its the author's goal to do so. He does cover practical examples of applied VHDL which serve as a great reference when I have to remember how to build a testbench.
Summary: A Great Book for Behavioral VHDL, Not for Synthesis
Rating: 4
This book goes into great detail on variable typing, subtyping, and all aspects of behavioral modeling. It's extremely detailed and thourough. If you just want to learn the intricacies of VHDL and only expect to write test benches and behavioral models, this is definitely the book for you. If you're looking for a practical book that will help you to write synthesizable code, look somewhere else. The book does have a 17-page appendix on synthesis, but that's pretty much it. All the "case studies" are behavioral, even the RTL models.
Summary: About as good as it will get it appears...
Rating: 4
VHDL is used for a wide variety of things - almost none of them what VHDL was every really meant for. This makes finding a useful text a reference a significant chore. Ashenden sometimes seems to move at a snail's pace - the text is written more as a tutorial than a reference. In some ways this is good, really the syntax of VHDL and the constructs are quite simple. His repeated examples make it clear there really isn't much magic going on. Personally I wish the book was more directed at synthesis - because that's what I use it for - but this text is more directed at the language. So some supplementing of the text will be necessary.
In short, it could be better but I'm not sure how and for my requirements it appears to be about the best the market has to offer.
Summary: The migration path for programmers
Rating: 4
Too many VHDL books dilute their point by trying to double as logic design texts. The problem is that VHDL is a complex (or "rich") language, and needs an intense focus of its own. This book does the best job I've seen. I've learned lots of languages, usually one or two a year. I know what to look for. I want a book that lays it all out clearly enough that I can find what I want. That includes complex data types, overloading, and especially configurability. VHDL really does have almost all the capabilities of a C-like language, plus a few more features, and the author has succeeded in making them accessible. Configurability deserves special attention - it is an explicit part of the VHDL language. It's a pre-Object-Oriented language but was developed when OO ideas were solidfying in the industry. Although it lacks OO flexibility, Ashenden does point out how "use" and "configure" can give a few of the same effects. Hardware description languages aren't like regular programming languages, and shouldn't be, and can't be. Still, they're not that different, either. Perhaps you're already a good programmer and already comfortable with digital system basics. If so, this may be the book to give you the language knowledge you need with minimal repetition of what you already know.
Summary: Not a practical guide
Rating: 3
If you are an engineer, like me, wanting to teach yourself VHDL then this is NOT the book for you. The actual mechanics of how to write VHDL code is lost in all of the doctrine superfluously created by the author. The examples he gives in order to clarify points only serve to make the concepts more mysterious. The book fails to make the connection between the software world and what the results of the language are in hardware. The index is minimal and I found it practically useless. It is an exhaustive work with many exercises, but as for practicality--I give it a big thumbs down. |
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发表于 2008-12-6 20:04:33
