I received my copy of AoE 2nd Edition today (see Win, I did bite the
bullet at the end). After my first skimming through it I can't hold back
a few comments and questions, now that I know that one of the authors is
listening.
o It is a very useful book. I particularly like the easy-going style.
It complements nicely the German Tietze/Schenk, which is a similar
heavyweight (>1400 pages), but more rigorous, with more mathematics.
(Has that ever been translated to English?)
o Being educated as a computer scientist, I could not resist looking at
the digital/computer parts first. It is quite apparent here that the
book was written 15 years ago.
o I tried to imagine what the future 3rd edition could possibly look
like. I couldn't. There's such a lot of stuff that I would want to put
in there that the book would explode. Things to include would be:
Electronic design using HDL (VHDL, Verilog). FPGAs. Newer interfaces
like USB, Firewire, PCI, Serial ATA, IrDA, Bluetooth, Wireless Ethernet.
Cell phone technologies. DSP. Sigma-Delta Converters. Microcontroller
programming in high level language. Multithreading kernels. Fuzzy logic
(?). SPI and I²C buses. Circuit simulation (SPICE, IBIS). I could go on.
How's that ever going to fit into one book? Win, haven't you despaired yet?
o Math review on three pages. Cool.
o The entire Chapter 12 is a testament to the down-to-earth character
of the book. No "rigorous" scientific oevre would bother itself with
this practical stuff. (Badly needs updating, though)
o Although there's a bibliography with some minimal commentary in the
appendix, I'd find it more useful to include footnotes in the normal
text for pointing out additional sources of advice/information on the
topic at hand. Maybe this can also be factored out to an accompanying
web page.
o Did we only have a handful of logic families in 1989? I can hardly
believe it today! The sheer number of different logic families today
makes the head spin and cries out for a road map.
Ok, enough for now. I've got some reading to do...