

Any good hardware book for software people? - furtivefelon

Hi all,<p>I am currently studying computer science only, and i would like to understand more about hardware side of things (from basic circuit to micro controllers and others). Is there any good books/lectures for such a endeavor?<p>Thank you very much for your help!<p>Jason
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babycakes
I'm unaware of a truly great basic circuits book, but if you get one, choose
one for electrical engineers. Physicists flip the direction of current flow,
which is mathematically equivalent but confusing. Once you learn basic
circuits, Sedra and Smith's "Microelectronic Circuits" is an awesome text for
analog transistor design. Lots of people use Razavi's "Design of Analog CMOS
Integrated Circuits" for advanced analog design, but I found the text full of
contrived examples that don't teach you practical design principles. Most
people don't go that far (senior-level EE electives), so you'll probably be
fine stopping at Sedra and Smith.

Hennessy and Patterson's "Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach" is a
comprehensive look at principles of computer architecture, but if you want to
actually design the digital circuits beneath them, you'll want something more
specialized. I used Wakerly's "Digital Design Principles and Practices." In
retrospect, I found it lacking on different types of arithmetic circuits, but
it was good enough for me. Keep in mind that most large-scale modern circuits
will be designed using hardware description languages, so you may want to
invest in a Verilog or VHDL text to continue your study but only after you
have come to understand digital design. (HDLs require a different type of
thinking than sequential programming languages.) AFAIK, Verilog is more common
in industry, whereas VHDL is more common on government and university
projects.

Good luck!

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balding_n_tired
Hennessy and Patterson's _Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach_.

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EliRivers
Petzold's "Code".

