Schaum's Outline of Introduction to Digital Systems Review

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(More customer reviews)Don't waste your money on this book. The primary problem being that the authors have gone completely "over the top" in their efforts to introduce logic representations employing what they refer to as "the mixed-logic convention". This has resulted in a key chapter (4) on the design and implementation of combinational logic being completely incomprehensible. And unfortunately much of this confusion is carried throughout the remainder of this book.
In fairness, I will point out that I'm somewhat biased. Being from an older school of though where we were taught binary arithmetic, Boolean algebra, Karnaugh mapping, digital IC hardware types, combinational and synchronous circuit design/analysis and how to establish and maintain a logic/voltage convention in our circuits. We were also taught how to take the family of logic that the boss gave us(usually the NAND gate, NOT inverter and J-K F/F) and design, test and draw a schematic for a circuit. We saw no need to have two or three different drawings for the NAND gate; somehow we just seemed to know how to interrupt the NAND function and no one seemed to agonize over what if the signal is "active high", "active low", "asserted", "unasserted" and etc. We also knew what the schematic meant without any "half arrows", "back slashes" or active high/low indicators other than the bar. God did we have it nice.
I fully understand that an instructor in this field today must incorporate some aspects of this mixed logic convention into their presentations. Many circuit designers have been taught this, to some degree or other, for several years and new students are sure to see different gate representations with different logic conventions being used in the same schematics; however this book is going to do nothing but be confussing in this area. When presenting the simple NAND gate implemented latch circuit (basic F/F), you see a drawing with two gates, eight half arrows, two back slashes and active logic livel indicators on all four I/O's, you have got to know something is seriously wrong. Do not read this book until you have your degree and then only for a laugh. For a Schaum's Outline, check out DIGITAL PRINCIPLES by Tokheim. If you can afford a good hardback reference, chech out DIGITAL SYSTEMS, PRINCIPLES & APPLICATIONS by Tocci & Widmer.

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This invaluable book teaches readers a unified design methodology. After providing some introductory material, it guides students through MSI and LSI combinatorial loci elements, emphasizing devices that can be programmed for specific applications. The rest of the book deals mainly with synchronous sequential logic. Throughout, problems with step-by-step solutions and delayed answers help readers guage their progress, deepen their comprehension, and sharpen their analytical skills.

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Digital Filters Review

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(More customer reviews)An Excellent text as well as a design reference for practicing engineers. The book is written in a clear and illustrative style by a distinguished authority in the field of Digital Signal Processing. In my opinion, it is the only textbook that enables one to fully understand and design digital filters using several approaches.
The text is unique in containing an essential chapter (ch.#5) dedicated for analog filter design which cannot be found in most texts. In most of the text, design is performed for prescribed specifications which reflects the practicality of the design methods illustrated.
It is merely the only text book to illustrate, in great details, the design of digital filters using optimization approaches (chs. #14, 15). The flow of information is incredibly smooth and the book has full range of detailed design examples. The treatment of finite-word-length effects in digital filters in ch. #13 combines the traditional techniques as well as techniques related to the state-space system descriptions. This is in addition to the material in ch. #12 for the design of wave digital filters.
I have gone through all of the book and implemented over 90% of its design techniques. I strongly recommend this text as a text for final undergrad/grad E.E. students as well as DSP designers. I also wish that the author would consider writing another book in Analog Filter Design.

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Dealing with the analysis, design, realization, implementation, and applications of digital filter in a straightforward and easy style, this text can serve either as a textbook on digital signal processing (DSP) with a strong emphasis on the design aspects of the discipline or as a state-of-the-art toolbox for researchers, engineers, and scientists. The analysis aspects include the study of finite-wordlength effects ranging from roundoff noise to limit-cycle oscillations. The design algorithms treated include both highly precise closed-form algorithms that yield standard filter types, e. g., elliptic recursive filters, as well as some very versatile iterative algorithms that can be used to design practically any type of recursive or non-recursive (IIR or FIR) filter. Among the iterative algorithms, a powerful quasi-Newton algorithm due to Fletcher and a very fast Remez algorithm are to be found. The realizations treated range from the well known standard direct and lattice realizations to the low-noise state-space and low-sensitivity wave realizations. The textbook also deals with several modern applications of digital filters, e. g., quadrature mirror-image channel banks and Hilbert transformers, and provides an introduction to two-dimensional and adaptive digital filters.

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