Best books for people changing fields?

> >I'm working on the second edition of "Building Electro-Optical Systems",
> >and I'm putting in a bibliography of a hundred or so good books for
> >advanced students as well as pros from other fields, which is attached
> >below.

<snip>

> Everybody needs a good book on high-speed circuit and pcb design,
> except that there ain't one.

Too true. Ralph Morrison's book

Grounding and Shielding: Circuits and Interference (Morrison, Ralph.
Grounding and Shielding Techniques.) (Hardcover) by Ralph Morrison
(Author) Wiley-IEEE Press; 5 edition (March 16, 2007) ISBN-10:
0470097728
ISBN-13: 978-0470097724

has been through a lot of editions, and now has chapter on printed
ciruit layout for high-speed circuits, but it's not a patch on the
rest of the book; the intoduction to the original book is brilliant
and makes the basic physics thoroughly accessible. I've yet to come
across anything equivalent for high speed circuit design.

Howard Johnson's books

High Speed Digital Design: A Handbook of Black Magic (Prentice Hall
Modern Semiconductor Design Series' Sub Series: PH Signal Integrity
Library) ISBN-10: 0133957241 ISBN-13: 978-0133957242

High Speed Signal Propagation: Advanced Black Magic (Prentice Hall
Modern Semiconductor Design Series' Sub Series: PH Signal Integrity
Library) ISBN-10: 013084408X ISBN-13: 978-0130844088

both of which I've got - aren't worth reading through, though they are
very handy places to find information about solutions to specific
problems.

I've also got a copy of the Williams and Taylor book on filter design

Electronic Filter Design Handbook, Fourth Edition (McGraw-Hill
Handbooks) (Hardcover)
by Arthur Williams (Author), Fred J. Taylor (Author) ISBN-10:
0071471715 ISBN-13: 978-0071471718

albeit the second edition rather than the fourth edition, and I've
recommended it here from time to time.

I've also recommended

"Coaxial AC Bridges" by B P Kibble and G H Rayner, ISBN 0-85274-389-0

which is great if you happen to want an AC bridge circuit with a
precision approaching one part in ten million, which few people do,
but sadly it is now out of print and tne U.K. National Physical
Laboratory has stopped printing it to order (as they were doing until
a few years ago).

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

Posted by Phil Hobbs on July 19, 2008, 12:55 pm

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bill.sloman@ieee.org wrote:

> On Jul 19, 3:10 am, John Larkin
>

>> Everybody needs a good book on high-speed circuit and pcb design,
>> except that there ain't one.

>
> Too true. Ralph Morrison's book
>
> Grounding and Shielding: Circuits and Interference (Morrison, Ralph.
> Grounding and Shielding Techniques.) (Hardcover) by Ralph Morrison
> (Author) Wiley-IEEE Press; 5 edition (March 16, 2007) ISBN-10:
> 0470097728
> ISBN-13: 978-0470097724
>
> has been through a lot of editions, and now has chapter on printed
> ciruit layout for high-speed circuits, but it's not a patch on the
> rest of the book; the intoduction to the original book is brilliant
> and makes the basic physics thoroughly accessible. I've yet to come
> across anything equivalent for high speed circuit design.
>

Yes. Morrison is on the list already--good to know about the PC layout
section in the newer edition. Since the first edition is 30 or so years
old, Morrison is probably either retired or too senior to be doing much
bench work these days. When you're writing about this stuff from a
distance, you don't have enough grip on the situation to be really
practical, as I've discovered over and over. You really have to have
tried escaping 500 high speed differential lines from a CPU on a
six-layer board to know what PC design is all about. (No, I haven't,
but some of my friends have--one product board I've helped with has a
2256-pin surface-mount backplane connector, with lines running at 5 Gb/s.)

> Howard Johnson's books
>
> High Speed Digital Design: A Handbook of Black Magic (Prentice Hall
> Modern Semiconductor Design Series' Sub Series: PH Signal Integrity
> Library) ISBN-10: 0133957241 ISBN-13: 978-0133957242
>
> High Speed Signal Propagation: Advanced Black Magic (Prentice Hall
> Modern Semiconductor Design Series' Sub Series: PH Signal Integrity
> Library) ISBN-10: 013084408X ISBN-13: 978-0130844088
>
> both of which I've got - aren't worth reading through, though they are
> very handy places to find information about solutions to specific

I'm still sort of torn about it--same with "Photonics Rules of Thumb",
which I gave a good review on Amazon, but which turns out on closer
examination to have a lot of the same issues as HoJo.

> "Coaxial AC Bridges" by B P Kibble and G H Rayner, ISBN 0-85274-389-0
>
> which is great if you happen to want an AC bridge circuit with a
> precision approaching one part in ten million, which few people do,
> but sadly it is now out of print and tne U.K. National Physical
> Laboratory has stopped printing it to order (as they were doing until
> a few years ago).

I've been trying to dig up a copy of this for ages, but haven't
succeeded so far. I'll happily trade a copy of my second edition for
one, if anyone is so motivated.

Thanks again,

Phil Hobbs

Posted by Jeff Liebermann on July 19, 2008, 1:25 pm

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On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:55:49 -0400, Phil Hobbs

>> "Coaxial AC Bridges" by B P Kibble and G H Rayner, ISBN 0-85274-389-0
>>
>> which is great if you happen to want an AC bridge circuit with a
>> precision approaching one part in ten million, which few people do,
>> but sadly it is now out of print and tne U.K. National Physical
>> Laboratory has stopped printing it to order (as they were doing until
>> a few years ago).

>
>I've been trying to dig up a copy of this for ages, but haven't
>succeeded so far. I'll happily trade a copy of my second edition for
>one, if anyone is so motivated.

There's one for sale on Amazon for $250.
The original cover price was $80.

<http://www.amazon.com/Coaxial-AC-Bridges-Kibble/dp/0852743890>

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Posted by Jonathan Kirwan on July 19, 2008, 1:45 pm

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On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:55:49 -0400, Phil Hobbs

><snip>

>> which is great if you happen to want an AC bridge circuit with a
>> precision approaching one part in ten million, which few people do,
>> but sadly it is now out of print and tne U.K. National Physical
>> Laboratory has stopped printing it to order (as they were doing until
>> a few years ago).

>
>I've been trying to dig up a copy of this for ages, but haven't
>succeeded so far. I'll happily trade a copy of my second edition for
>one, if anyone is so motivated.

They (UK Nat Phys Lab) must have the rights to it and it should be
possible to secure permission for printing, I'd hope. With that,
there are a number of one-off publishers that would print it
on-demand. At least, that would make it possible for others to own a
copy.

I suppose the problem is getting ahold of someone with the authority
to write up a permission letter and time required, perhaps, for an
attorney (barrister?) to do the "legal diligence" someone there might
feel is needed in writing the permission.

Jon

Posted by on July 20, 2008, 3:54 am

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> On Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:55:49 -0400, Phil Hobbs
>

> ><snip>

> >> which is great if you happen to want an AC bridge circuit with a
> >> precision approaching one part in ten million, which few people do,
> >> but sadly it is now out of print and tne U.K. National Physical
> >> Laboratory has stopped printing it to order (as they were doing until
> >> a few years ago).

> >I've been trying to dig up a copy of this for ages, but haven't
> >succeeded so far. =A0I'll happily trade a copy of my second edition for
> >one, if anyone is so motivated.

>
> They (UK Nat Phys Lab) must have the rights to it and it should be
> possible to secure permission for printing, I'd hope.

They had negotiated a right to print with the original publishers - it
was published in Bristol, U.K.
by Adam Hilger in 1984, ISBN 0852743890. The Amazon copy is listed as
published by Tayler and Francis in 1984 gives Kibble as the sole
author.

It was on offer on their web-site until recently. It might still be
available if you asked nicely.

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

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Electronics Design Best books for people changing fields?