College EE Textbook Recommendations

Most professors seem to get an itch, sooner or later, to write a textbook... and many of them then proceed to require that same textbook for their students.

If that's not a good way to stifle your student's ability to get more than one point of view on a subject, I don't know what is. :-)

Of course, many professors do have good books, I just think the savvier professor would make his or her own book a recommended second book rather than the primary one for a course.

I had a comp. sci. professor use his own text in a course that was best described as, "Assembly language on a VAX." It was an OK book, I suppose, but nothing to compare to the classic CS books out there. I do recall learning a few things about magnetic tapes that I didn't already know -- something that was about 95% useless already at the time, but still interesting. (I kinda wish I'd had some EE class where they had discussed tubes at least a little, rather than immediately relegating them to the corners of anachronisms...)

Definitely obtain "The Art of Electronics" if you don't have a copy. BTW, one of the authors (Winfield Hill) is a fellow s.e.d. poster here. That is really nice.

Probably not but the number of sane persons is definitely on the decline. Just try to get used to the fact that you now need at least 1GB of RAM to write "Hello World". At least after Vista, I guess.

Yes :-(

Engineering certainly isn't. Then again, wealth ain't the purpose of life. Since you mentioned heaven: "For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it" (1Tim 6:7). Not even a nice CAD program ;-)

We had a prof who topped that. In the early 80's he declared that almost none of us would have to deal with circuits on the transistor level anymore since everything will be in chips. I had a major ROFL episode right there in the auditorium, just couldn't help it ...

While there is high end audio being designed discretely, most solutions exist in a chip. If you are not designing chips, you are probably combining chips to build systems. Now there are booking on discrete audio design, but they are not college texts.

There are many websites for discrete audio design. Erno Bobely papers are on the net.

For RF, the ARRL has plenty of books a step below college level.

For digital I would recommend Digital Circuits Principles and Applications by Ronald J. Tocci For general analog electronics (transistors, amps, filters etc) I would recommend Electronis Devices by Thomas L. Floyd

Both are well laid out and simple to read with no complex math or analysis stuff (if that's what you are after).

Dave.

Howdy,

Thanks for the various links.

With regards to Mr. Slone's supplications to the deities, isn't this traditionally how an important literary work begins? Surely I can recall something similar at the start of The Odyssey. ;-)

Cordially, Richard Kanarek

Dear Mr. Jones,

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

I cannot be sure because the book is at work[1] -- ever since I started this thread (from home), almost any book I've wanted to mention/refer to has been at work or missing! -- but I *think* that Mr. Floyd's many book[2] are exactly the sort of books that I'm NOT looking for. (But thanks just the same for the input!)

First off, why would I (anyone) want a book with "no complex math or analysis stuff"? Must I remain ignorant forever? Nay, I want books that will help me to acquire skill and dexterity with complex math and analysis (which is, admittedly, asking a lot from an author ;-). What a pity that Silvanus Thompson never put his quill to engineering.

Also, surely Mr. Floyd's book(s) are geared to engineering technology, not engineering? While I am myself pursuing, part time, an engineering'ish degree, it is all by distance. I have no idea what non-ish engineering students are reading these days (except as revealed by the replies posted here).

Cordially, Richard Kanarek

OK, no problem.

Perhaps because they are generally easier to read and easier to find stuff and comprehend at a later date. And generally the majority of real engineering work does not require the complex math or analysis.

Sure, in that case get a book with complex math and analysis as well. But you generally won't get the best of both worlds.

They are reading as many books as there are out there. Almost every school in every state in every country in the world seem to use a different book. The Art of Electronics is probably as close as it gets to a "standard" text.

He has done quite a few it seems:

"Electronic Devices" (7th edition, I have the 2nd edition)

"Principles of Electronic Circuits":

Experiments in Electronic Devices: To Accompany Floyd Electronic Devices and Electronic Devices Electron Flow Version":

"Fundamentals of Analog Circuits"

"Digital Fundamentals":

"Fundamentals of Analog Circuits"

Not a bad collection of work. I don't know of the differences between books, but presumably the digital is completely different to the analog one :->

Dave.

design (which includes building PLLs, most amplifiers, pretty much all of RF design, etc.) without standard phasor analysis, which -- at least where I went to school -- was part of "EE 101" (although it was really "ECE 220" :-) ).

I would agree that few engineers need to remember how you go about demonstrating that, e.g., S-parameters are passive if the matrix is unitary, which implies that the eigenvalues of S^{H}*S are all less than one, and you can re-cast this into a form that uses the positve real lemma to derive an algebraic passivity check by constructing a specific Hamiltonian matrix, blah, blah, blah (sorry, thesis flashback nightmares)...

This is a good point: The Art of Electronics is the obvious example -- very little "tradiaitonal EE" math, yet incredibly useful.

I think? there are realtively few colleges that use TAoE in their

---Joel

I doubt any academic book would be able to teach you anything that you already know since most authors have this tendency to copy one another. Original books like The Art of Electronics by Win Hill et al, or Power Amplifier Design by Douglas Self are rare exceptions. If you can, look for publications from societies in that particular area such as for radio, you could try the RSGB or it's American equivalent ARRL.

Some of the projects are amazing because they have been designed by hardened professionals rather than academics living in a platonic universe of equations.

I suppose you are serious :-(

Circuit compendia, "original books" such as by Win Hill et al "teach" only to cut and paste... NOT how to think.

...Jim Thompson

They teach people what it's like to design in the real world, unlike most academic books. Academic books are needed to provide a foundation in design, but the OP gave the impression that he already has this and simply wants to get up to date. I learn more from people that design for a living, rather than guys that plagarise other peoples books going back 35 years, and I suspect the same is true for the OP who gives the impression he already has the academic foundations.

jmc

The best text books are written where the authors feel compelled to explain clearly, what they had to scrounge out, on the way to their "Piled Higher and Deeper". These usually occur when that aspect of technology is transitioning from new and experimental (temperamental) to early regularized. The GE Transistor Manual, 7th Edition, is a classic example. I used it to learn bipolar transistor basics in my early teens. The 8th edition at half the thickness is a travesty by comparison.

Just because a (text) book is newer does _NOT_ mean that it is necessarily better. Of course if you insist on getting rid of your older text books, let me know when and where, i might want to go "dumpster diving".

I have lived sooo long with almost everybody telling me that "Who are you to criticize me, you are no genius", that they almost talked me onto it. Not that i really believe that i am some genius, but that they are trying to avoid checking their own assumptions. Thus i tend to try to take away all their excuses for not doing so.

Very true, but in general I think that more recent books benefit from the desktop publishing revolution where it's easier to include lots of nice graphs, highlights, diagrams and formatting that can

But of course good content and good presentation can very easily be mutually exclusive!

Dave.

Circuit compendia, sure, but I think you're selling Win a bit short. Yes, he has plenty of design examples, but those come *after* the theory and some attempt to get you to think for yourself. Additionally, the design examples are presented in such a way as to try to get the user to *think* about what the circuit does, rather than just blindly copying it. The fact that we see people here occasionally trying to analyze one of Win's circuits is proof of that.

Clearly you're a very good designer, Jim, but surely you'd admit that you'd probably be nowhere near as good as you are if you hadn't had the opportunity to view other peoples' designs, analyze them, and learn from them? I.e., if you'd just been taught electronics theory and had to derive every single circuit toplogy you've ever used from scratch?

How many books are on your shelf? :-)

---Joel

But I was ALWAYS mathematically inclined, using Algebra to calculate at least the basic performance before I built.

I still do. Spice is only a design checker. If you don't analyse, you will miss subtleties that will shoot you in the ass ;-)

Which is why I get frosted when (almost) no lurker here will even attempt to analyse the simplest of circuits.

( I cut my teeth on an ancient GE transistor data book... and fried a LOT of stuff... frying and analysing WHY is the best teacher ;-)

...Jim Thompson

I started college as a Physics major and was doing pretty well - Dean's List most semesters. Then in my junior year I took Theoretical Mechanics from a professor who was writing his own text on the subject. It was the required text for the class, even though it was not yet completed. Every class we got a sheaf of photocopies of handwritten manuscript. On top of that, he had a thick Balkan accent (his written English and penmanship were impeccable, however).

The next semester I was wavering between Mathematics and Literature majors, and eventually (12 years later) graduated with an oxymoronic BA degree in Computer Science.

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who.

-- Rudyard Kipling