This heavily revised edition of the well-received text teaches the organization and design of complex digital systems. Unique in its effective exploitation of a hardware description language, this book's systematic approach involves the reader in the design process. Rather than just describe an end product, the authors employ a register-transfer and control-sequence design language--A Hardware Program Language (AHPL), through which the design of a wide variety of digital hardware systems is explored. Text contains much new material, as well as sections on peripherals, interfacing, microprocessors, hardware compiling processes, and virtual memory hardware. Includes extensive examples and problems sets.

This book highlights the complex issues, tasks and skills that must be mastered by an IP designer, in order to design an optimized and robust digital circuit to solve a problem. The techniques and methodologies described can serve as a bridge between specifications that are known to the designer and RTL code that is final outcome, reducing significantly the time it takes to convert initial ideas and concepts into right-first-time silicon. Coverage focuses on real problems rather than theoretical concepts, with an emphasis on design techniques across various aspects of chip-design.

The author is the leading programming language designer of our time and in this book, based on a course for 2nd-year students at, he closes the gap between hardware and software design. He encourages students to put the theory to work in exercises that include lab work culminating in the design of a simple yet complete computer. In short, a modern introduction to designing circuits using state-of-the-art technology and a concise, easy to master hardware description language (Lola).

"Digital Design provides a modern approach to learning the increasingly important topic of digital systems design. The text's focus on register-transfer-level design and present-day applications not only leads to a better appreciation of computers and of today's ubiquitous digital devices, but also provides for a better understanding of careers involving digital design and embedded system design. The book's key features include: An emphasis on register-transfer-level (RTL) design, the level at which most digital design is practiced today, giving readers a modern perspective of the field's applicability. Yet, coverage stays bottom-up and concrete, starting from basic transistors and gates, and moving step-by-step up to more complex components. Extensive use of basic examples to teach and illustrate new concepts, and of application examples, such as pacemakers, ultrasound machines, automobiles, and cell phones, to demonstrate the immediate relevance of the concepts. Separation of basic design from optimization, allowing development of a solid understanding of basic design, before considering the more advanced topic of optimization. Flexible organization, enabling early or late coverage of optimization methods or of HDLs, and enabling choice of VHDL, Verilog, or SystemC HDLs. Career insights and advice from designers with varying levels of experience. A clear bottom-up description of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). About the Author: Frank Vahid is a Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of California, Riverside. He holds Electrical Engineering and Computer Science degrees; has worked/consulted for Hewlett Packard, AMCC, NEC, Motorola, and medical equipment makers; holds 3 U.S. patents; has received several teaching awards; helped setup UCR's Computer Engineering program; has authored two previous textbooks; and has published over 120 papers on digital design topics (automation, architecture, and low-power).