High-Speed Digital Design: A Handbook of Black Magic » (1st Edition)

Howard W. Johnson is president of Olympic Technology Group, Inc., of
Redmond, Washington, a digital electronic design and consulting organization. Before founding the firm, he was Manager of Technology and Advanced Development at Ultra Network Technologies, a manufacturer of gigabit-per-second local area networks for supercomputers. Since obtaining his Ph.D. in 1982 from Rice University, he has specialized in the design of high-speed digital communications and digital signal processing systems.

Martin Graham has been a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California at Berkeley since 1966, where he teaches the design of reliable and manufacturable electronic systems.

Focused on the field of knowledge lying between digital and analog circuit theory, this new text will help engineers workng with digital systems shorten their latest design problems. The scope of the material covered includes signal reflection, crosstalk, and noise problems which occur in high speed digital machines ( above 10 megahertz). This volume will be of practical use to digital logic designers, sstaff and senior communitions scientist, and all those interested in digital design.

Dan Strassberg

Engineers who must make high-speed circuits work will find this book invaluable. Johnson and Graham strike what seems to me to be just the right balance between rigor and nuts-and-bolts practicality. The book should be must reading for EE students who aspire to work in digital-hardware design. It should also occupy a place in the libraries of most of the experienced practitioners of the art. -- EDN

Preface

This is a book for digital designers. It highlights and explains analog circuit principles relevant to high-speed digital design. Teaching by example, the authors cover ringing, crosstalk, and radiated noise problems which commonly beset high-speed digital machines.

None of this material is new. On the contrary, it has been handed down by word of mouth and passed along through application notes for many years. This book simply collects together that wisdom. Because much of this material is not covered in standard college curricula, many practicing engineers view high-speed effects as somewhat mysterious, ominous, or daunting. For them, this subject matter has earned the name "black magic." The authors would like to dispel the popular myth that anything unusual or unexplained happens at high speeds. It's simply a matter of knowing which principles apply, and how.

Digital designers working at low speeds do not need this material. In low-speed designs, signals remain clean and well behaved, conforming nicely to the binary model.

At high speeds, where fast signal rise times exaggerate the influence of analog effects, engineers experience a completely different view of logic signals. To them, logic signals often appear hairy, jagged, and distorted. For their products to function, high-speed designers must know and use analog principles. This book explains what those principles are and how to apply them.

Readers without the benefit of formal training in analog circuit theory can use and apply the formulas and examples in this book. Readers who have completed a first year class in introductory linear circuit theory may comprehendthismaterial at a deeper level.

Chapters 1-3 introduce analog circuit terminology, the high-speed properties of logic gates, and standard high-speed measurement techniques, respectively. These three chapters form the core of the book and should be included in any serious study of high-speed logic design.

The remaining chapters, 4-12, each treat specialized topics in high-speed logic design and may be studied in any order.

Appendix A collects highlights from each section, listing the most important ideas and concepts presented. It can be used as a checklist for system design or as an index to the text when facing a difficult problem.

Appendix B details the mathematical assumptions behind various forms of rise time measurement. This section helps relate results given in this book to other sources and standards of nomenclature.

Appendix C lists standard formulas for computing the resistance, capacitance, and inductance of physical structures. These formulas have been implemented in MathCad and are available from the authors in magnetic form.