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Textbook recommendation

O

o pere o

Jan 1, 1970
0
So imagine undergraduate students who have studied:

- 2 semesters of digital design (from gates to VHDL to a small processor)
- 2 semesters of circuit theory (from Kirchoff to OpAmp, Laplace,
Fourier, Bode)
- 2 semesters of analog and digital signals and systems (Modulations,
sampling, DSP)
- 1 semester of analog electronics
- 1 semester of RF circuits
- 2 semesters of high level programming (from basics to classes)
- 2 semesters around microcontrollers and microprocessors (AVR and ARM/MIPS)
- 1 semester of C programming at the hardware level
- 1 semester of Operating Systems
- 1 semester of Real-Time and Concurrent programming
- 1 semester of Communication Networks (ISO levels)

all with the associated maths, physics and others.

When it comes to integrate this knowledge into a whole system, where you
have to think globally, taking into account energy management,
electromagnetic compatibility, thermal issues, choice of technology for
wireless connectivity, etc., is there any textbook out there? And any
one which you could recommend?

I have been searching around but the only way out seems to be to make a
mix of application notes, and pehaps selected chapters from here and
there. I would be glad to find a single source... even knowing that this
may be difficult. Anyway, asking won't hurt ;)

Thanks for any input

Pere
 
J

John Devereux

Jan 1, 1970
0
o pere o said:
So imagine undergraduate students who have studied:

- 2 semesters of digital design (from gates to VHDL to a small processor)
- 2 semesters of circuit theory (from Kirchoff to OpAmp, Laplace,
Fourier, Bode)
- 2 semesters of analog and digital signals and systems (Modulations,
sampling, DSP)
- 1 semester of analog electronics
- 1 semester of RF circuits
- 2 semesters of high level programming (from basics to classes)
- 2 semesters around microcontrollers and microprocessors (AVR and ARM/MIPS)
- 1 semester of C programming at the hardware level
- 1 semester of Operating Systems
- 1 semester of Real-Time and Concurrent programming
- 1 semester of Communication Networks (ISO levels)

all with the associated maths, physics and others.

When it comes to integrate this knowledge into a whole system, where
you have to think globally, taking into account energy management,
electromagnetic compatibility, thermal issues, choice of technology
for wireless connectivity, etc., is there any textbook out there? And
any one which you could recommend?

I have been searching around but the only way out seems to be to make
a mix of application notes, and pehaps selected chapters from here and
there. I would be glad to find a single source... even knowing that
this may be difficult. Anyway, asking won't hurt ;)

Thanks for any input

You might look at "The Circuit Designers Companion" by Tim Williams. An
oldish book now (1991). But is specifically intended to cover some of
the electronic product design real-world issues typically left out of
academic courses.
 
O

o pere o

Jan 1, 1970
0
You might look at "The Circuit Designers Companion" by Tim Williams. An
oldish book now (1991). But is specifically intended to cover some of
the electronic product design real-world issues typically left out of
academic courses.

Thanks, John! There is a second edition from 2004, which I am looking at
now thanks to google books. From a quick look at the contents it looks
very promising...

Pere
 
J

John Devereux

Jan 1, 1970
0
o pere o said:
Thanks, John! There is a second edition from 2004, which I am looking
at now thanks to google books. From a quick look at the contents it
looks very promising...

Also of course the now venerable "Art of Electronics", if you have not
already got it.

A classic, it's old now, a new one is due out in a few months. (And has
been for the last 10 years but we live in hope...).
 
N

Nico Coesel

Jan 1, 1970
0
Bruce Varley said:
OK, I get people like this to mentor regularly, their academic background is
process control and I've been designing and implementing industrial controls
for > 40 years. It takes 2 years of mentoring to get them up to the point
where they can handle simple problems autonomously, and very little of their
time is spent reading books of any sort. Just about all of what they have to
learn isn't in *any* book, it's about judging when to be precise and when to
compromise, how to work out what questions to ask, how to utilise and
integrate the input of others, how to judge when you've got it good enough,
when to copy and when ot innovate, the list goes on.

Actually my EE study included that. If -lets give it a name- 'circuit
realisation' isn't part of an EE course I'd get my money back.
 
M

miso

Jan 1, 1970
0
I get the sense you believe there is an optimal solution to a complex
system, which of course there isn't. In my mind, optimal is high
reliability, but someone else might want low cost.

Since you are outlining a sampled data system (maybe not in the strict
sense but still in practice), you always have to consider what happens
between samples. Life is analog, and analog needs to be under control at
all times, not just at the sample points.
 
O

o pere o

Jan 1, 1970
0
Also of course the now venerable "Art of Electronics", if you have not
already got it.

A classic, it's old now, a new one is due out in a few months. (And has
been for the last 10 years but we live in hope...).

I surely have AoE! But I am looking more for material for someone who
already has had an exposure to the material of AoE and wishes to
integrate this into a product. You may know how to design a low-noise
amplifier but you have to put this inside a box, perhaps battery powered...

Tim Williams' book looks nice for the "electronics" part. But there are
also those nasty system decisions. For instance, where to put the
frontiers between Software, Firmware and Hardware. How to these affect
development time, power consumption, reliability, performance? How does
one learn this -if not by experience? I am actually looking for support
material in any of these "systems integration" areas...

Pere
 
Optimal is what you can sell, and what works in the real world. Dealing with

that isn't very deterministic.





--



John Larkin Highland Technology Inc

www.highlandtechnology.com jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com



Precision electronic instrumentation

Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators

Custom timing and laser controllers

Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links

VME analog, thermocouple, LVDT, synchro, tachometer

Multichannel arbitrary waveform generators

I thought your standard was 'less unsatisfactory'?
 
OK, I get people like this to mentor regularly, their academic background is

process control and I've been designing and implementing industrial controls

for > 40 years. It takes 2 years of mentoring to get them up to the point

where they can handle simple problems autonomously, and very little of their

time is spent reading books of any sort. Just about all of what they have to

learn isn't in *any* book, it's about judging when to be precise and when to

compromise, how to work out what questions to ask, how to utilise and

integrate the input of others, how to judge when you've got it good enough,

when to copy and when ot innovate, the list goes on.

Yep, and never underestimate the power of iteration...
 
M

miso

Jan 1, 1970
0
Where you partition a system changes with technology. Look at software
defined radios. If you don't need versatility, analog design wins.
[Simple and low power.] If you need to support a plethora of modulation
options, SDR wins.

I have mentioned on this NG more than once about the DTMF dialer we put
in a modem chipset that used a CORDIC. It was insanely accurate, way
beyond the requirements. The only reason we did it was the DAC, uP and
CORDIC were needed in the system for other functions, and dialing was
done at a time when those system resources were not in use.

I don't believe the book you want exists.
 
J

John Miles, KE5FX

Jan 1, 1970
0
So imagine undergraduate students who have studied:

- 2 semesters of digital design (from gates to VHDL to a small processor)
- 2 semesters of circuit theory (from Kirchoff to OpAmp, Laplace,
Fourier, Bode)
- 2 semesters of analog and digital signals and systems (Modulations,
sampling, DSP)
- 1 semester of analog electronics
- 1 semester of RF circuits
- 2 semesters of high level programming (from basics to classes)
- 2 semesters around microcontrollers and microprocessors (AVR and ARM/MIPS)
- 1 semester of C programming at the hardware level
- 1 semester of Operating Systems
- 1 semester of Real-Time and Concurrent programming
- 1 semester of Communication Networks (ISO levels)

all with the associated maths, physics and others.

When it comes to integrate this knowledge into a whole system, where you
have to think globally, taking into account energy management,
electromagnetic compatibility, thermal issues, choice of technology for
wireless connectivity, etc., is there any textbook out there? And any
one which you could recommend?

I have been searching around but the only way out seems to be to make a
mix of application notes, and pehaps selected chapters from here and
there. I would be glad to find a single source... even knowing that this
may be difficult. Anyway, asking won't hurt ;)

Thanks for any input

Pere

I've enjoyed surfing through Phil Hobbs' "Building Electro-Optical
Systems: Making It All Work." It's ecumenical in scope, to the extent
that I think the title was a mistake on his part (or his
publisher's). Easily half of the book discusses topics of interest in
general system design rather than anything specific to EO systems.
Those who have been waiting for the upcoming AoE 3rd edition are
likely to enjoy and benefit from Phil's book in the meantime.

Another book that is somewhat mistitled is Henry Ott's newest edition
of "Electromagnetic Compatibility Engineering." Anyone building an
electronic device with two or more components could probably benefit
from this one.

The current edition of "Building Scientific Apparatus" is a fun read,
too.

-- john
 
You can't quantify the tradeoffs between features, engineering cost,
production cost, reliability, time-to-market, liabilities, glamour,
and other stuff. Some products aren't even intended to make a profit,
but to show capability or create buzz, like a concept car or
something, or something to learn from whether it's a good product on
its own.

The specification can absolutely define the widget to be designed.
Sorta turning the art of electronics into the science of electronics.
That's why design is fun, an art, and not just an exercize in
numerical optimization.

Sometimes it is just turning the crank. It might not be any fun (I
tend to agree) but it does create successful products. In fact,
that's why software is so miserable; all art, no science.
 
You people really need to meditate. For instance, an optimal solution
would draw no power. Thus no electronic device is optimal. Hence all
electronic devices have some compromise.

Complete nonsense. Power/energy may be of no interest whatsoever.
 
M

miso

Jan 1, 1970
0
Complete nonsense. Power/energy may be of no interest whatsoever.

You might want to check in the mirror to see who is spouting nonsense.
If you think in the 21st Century, nobody cares about power, you will be
left far far far behind.

Oh, have you ever heard of a company called Arm? Intel has.
 
J

John Devereux

Jan 1, 1970
0
miso said:
You people really need to meditate. For instance, an optimal solution
would draw no power. Thus no electronic device is optimal. Hence all
electronic devices have some compromise.

QED

Optimal should include the development cost, which should include the
time taken to do the optimization :)

This is something I am forever getting wrong myself - I can spend far
too long "optimizing" - fiddling - with the design, at all stages.
 
N

Nico Coesel

Jan 1, 1970
0
o pere o said:
Sure. I am just looking for some text to help in this process: it does
not have to be a general approach -this may not exist. But perhaps there
is a nice case study which can be extrapolated.

And it doesn't look like there are many such books out there, suggesting

I just looked it up but all I can find is reading material (a couple
of hundred pages) put together by several teachers and published by
the school. The topics covered are like establishing requirements,
adhering to regulations, thermal behaviour, interfacing logic,
impedance matching, PCB layout, power distribution, logic switching
time, etc, etc.
 
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