[sdiy] Horowitz/Hill

[Tim Stinchcombe]

> Funny, even though my education was called study of 
> electrical engineering (Elektrotechnik), most books were not 
> on electronics, but on mathematics, system theory, circuit 
> analysis (means: RLC circuits), Electrodynamics (E and H 
> fields ...) and digital signal processing. And when, after 2 
> years of maths, the first active circuits were subject of the 
> lectures, the prof came up with tubes instead of transistors. 
> I still have vivid memories of the shock when feedback theory 
> wasn't taught to us on transistors, but on tube circuits. 
> "It's a good exercise to learn it on tubes and then apply 
> your knowledge to transitors". Bastard!

That made me laugh! As a lad I dabbled in electronics as a fun hobby, and
decided to study it at college. However I soon discovered that the fun was
taken out it very quickly, as what I was being taught (similar to that
mentioned above) bore no relation to what I saw as 'fun'. So I quit the
electronics and did maths instead. Now, some 25 years later I have
rediscovered through synthesizers that, yes indeed, electronics *is* fun.
And it *is* possible to put together a reasonable circuit without worrying
about electromagnetics, 3-phase star-delta/delta-star transformations, or
the heaps of seemingly irrelevant stuff I was taught way back then.

As for AoE, I do find it useful, but it took a while to establish what it is
good for: rules of thumb, and practical advice, yes; detailed why and how
something works, no. E.g. the few introductory pages on the differential
pair starting p98 is a complete non-starter for me - too many wishy-washy
statements of the sort Paul alluded to.

Increasingly I find 'Microelectronic Circuits' by Sedra & Smith, OUP the
first book I pull off the shelf when I need some farly detailed technical
explanation - it certainly fills in many of the blanks AoE creates.

CMOS Cookbook is often referred to as well; IC Opamp Cookbook less so -
can't put my finger on it, but just something about it I don't get on with
that well (maybe the lousy 'photocopy' printing of my edition?)

Tim
__________________________________________________________
Tim Stinchcombe 

Cheltenham, Glos, UK
email: tim102 at tstinchcombe.freeserve.co.uk