Books about Prototyping from Amazon.com

A hands-on introduction to VHDL synthesis and FPGA prototyping

Hardware Descriptive Language (HDL) and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices allow designers to quickly develop and simulate a sophisticated digital circuit, realize it on a prototyping device, and verify the operation of its physical implementation. As these technologies have matured, they have become accepted mainstream practice so that it is possible to use a PC and an inexpensive FPGA prototyping board to construct a complex digital system.

This book uses a "learn by doing" approach to introduce the concepts and techniques of VHDL and FPGA to designers through a series of hands-on experiments. FPGA Prototyping by VHDL Examples provides:

• A collection of clear, easy-to-follow templates for quick code development

• A large number of practical examples to illustrate and reinforce the concepts and design techniques

• Realistic projects that can be implemented and tested on a Xilinx prototyping board

• A thorough exploration of the Xilinx PicoBlaze soft-core microcontroller

Although the book is an introductory text, the examples are developed in a rigorous manner and the derivations follow strict design guidelines and coding practices used for large, complex systems. It lays a solid foundation for students and new engineers and prepares them for future development tasks. FPGA Prototyping by VHDL Examples is an indispensable companion text for introductory digital design courses and also serves as a valuable self-teaching guide for practicing engineers who wish to learn more about this emerging area of interest.

Please visit the companion website at http://academic.csuohio.edu/chu_p/rtl/fpga_vhdl.html.
Price: $66.15 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Praise for Michael Allen's e-Learning Library

This is the first volume of six in Michael Allen's e-Learning Library a comprehensive collection of proven techniques for creating e-learning applications that achieve targeted behavioral outcomes through meaningful, memorable, and motivational learning experiences. This book walks readers through the revolutionary processes of rapid prototyping and iterative design as a means of sorting the conflicting and hidden agendas of organizations, winning essential support, and generating creative learning solutions.

"Too many learners have been frustrated and too many careers have been derailed from poorly designed, ineffective e-learning. Michael Allen is finally sharing his 'secret sauce' with the world. The Savvy Start technique alone will go a long way to ensuring that every e-learning project turns out to be a successful one."
--Kevin Kruse, founder, e-LearningGuru.com

"Michael Allen has written a terrific book for courseware developers and business leaders who are interested in launching e-learning programs that will have a true impact on people performance and the business. It is a must-read for everyone who wants to take e-learning to the next level."
--Nick van Dam, global chief learning officer, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu; founder, e-LearningforKids.org

"Michael Allen knows instructional design from the ground floor up. For four decades he's lead the field. Now he shares his hard-earned knowledge with the rest of us."
--Will Thalheimer, president and principal researcher, Work-Learning Research

"In this short volume, beginning with rapid analysis, rapid prototyping, and rapid evaluation, we find not only the details of the successive approximation process for developing superior e-learning, but also corporate and academic case studies to provide context for the design and development approaches recommended."
--Michael E. Echols, vice-president, Strategic Initiatives, Bellevue University; author, ROI on Human Capital Investment.
Price: $25.28 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Much as we hate to admit it, most prototyping practice lacks a sophisticated understanding of the broad concepts of prototypingand its strategic position within the development process. Often we overwhelm with a high fidelity prototype that designs us into a corner. Or, we can underwhelm with a prototype with too much ambiguity and flexibility to be of much use in the software development process.

This book will help software makersdevelopers, designers, and architectsbuild effective prototypes every time: prototypes that convey enough information about the product at the appropriate time and thus set expectations appropriately.

This practical, informative book will help anyonewhether or not one has artistic talent, access to special tools, or programming abilityto use good prototyping style, methods, and tools to build prototypes and manage for effective prototyping.

Features
* A prototyping process with guidelines, templates, and worksheets;
* Overviews and step-by-step guides for 9 common prototyping techniques;
* An introduction with step-by-step guidelines to a variety of prototyping tools that do not require advanced artistic skills;
* Templates and other resources used in the book available on the Web for reuse;
* Clearly-explained concepts and guidelines;
* Full-color illustrations, and examples from a wide variety of prototyping processes, methods, and tools.

Jonathan Arnowitz is a principal user experience designer at SAP Labs and is the co-editor-in-chief of Interactions Magazine. Most recently Jonathan was a senior user experience designer at Peoplesoft. He is a member of the SIGCHI executive committee, and was a founder of DUX, the first ever joint conference of ACM SIGCHI, ACM SIGGRAPH, AIGA Experience Design Group, and STC.

Michael Arent is the manager of user experience design at SAP Labs, and has previously held positions at Peoplesoft, Inc, Adobe Systems, Inc, Sun Microsystems, and Apple Computer, Inc. He holds several U.S. patents.

Nevin Berger is design director at Ziff Davis Media. Previously he was a senior interaction designer at Oracle Corporation and Peoplesoft, Inc., and has held creative director positions at ZDNet, World Savings, and OFOTO, Inc.

* A prototyping process with guidelines, templates, and worksheets;

* Overviews and step-by-step guides for 9 common prototyping techniques;

* An introduction with step-by-step guidelines to a variety of prototyping tools that do not require advanced artistic skills;

* Templates and other resources used in the book available on the Web for reuse;

* Clearly-explained concepts and guidelines;

* Full-color illustrations, and examples from a wide variety of prototyping processes, methods, and tools.

* www.mkp.com/prototyping.
Price: $41.27 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Mobile Python is the introduction of Python programming language to the mobile space.  This practical hands-on book teaches readers how to realize their application ideas on the Symbian OS. Programming on the Symbian mobile platform has been difficult and time consuming in the past.  This innovative new title will remedy this problem. 

Chapters deal with topics that are based on Python S60 features and presented in an order that lets the user learn first the “simple to code” ones and then increasing in complexity.

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Price: $39.05 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The push to move products to market as quickly and cheaply as possible is fiercer than ever, and accordingly, engineers are always looking for new ways to provide their companies with the edge over the competition. Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), which are faster, denser, and more cost-effective than traditional programmable logic devices (PLDs), are quickly becoming one of the most widespread tools that embedded engineers can utilize in order to gain that needed edge. FPGAs are especially popular for prototyping designs, due to their superior speed and efficiency.

This book hones in on that rapid prototyping aspect of FPGA use, showing designers exactly how they can cut time off production cycles and save their companies money drained by costly mistakes, via prototyping designs with FPGAs first. Reading it will take a designer with a basic knowledge of implementing FPGAs to the next-level of FPGA use because unlike broad beginner books on FPGAs, this book presents the required design skills in a focused, practical, example-oriented manner.

*In-the-trenches expert authors assure the most applicable advice to practicing engineers

*Dual focus on successfully making critical decisions and avoiding common pitfalls appeals to engineers pressured for speed and perfection

*Hardware and software are both covered, in order to address the growing trend toward "cross-pollination" of engineering expertise.
Price: $42.44 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Owing to the development and rapid spread of communication technologies including the Internet, the world is indeed turning into a global village. The rate of introduction of new products and technologies is steadily rising. At the same time, pressures to reduce time-to-market are mounting. Only companies that are able to realize products rapidly are able to survive today.
From a technological viewpoint, rapid product realization involves rapid design, rapid prototyping, and rapid tooling. Fortunately, a class of technologies, also collectively called rapid prototyping (RP) technologies, has emerged in the last two decades or so to meet these requirements. Early technologies merely aimed to produce single part look-alikes. However, intense R&D efforts are taking place around the world to go beyond mere `look alike' single part prototyping, into functional, multi-part assemblies.
RP technologies are different from other modern manufacturing technologies in many ways. In RP, material is usually added incrementally in a layered manner and, occasionally, subtracted. Some technologies depend upon layers of resin cured under the influence of one or more CNC controlled laser beams. Others use lasers to selectively sinter layers of powdered metal. There are also RP technologies that do not use lasers at all. Indeed, RP is turning out to be a potent arena for technological creativity.
This book provides an updated overview of RP technologies at a level of detail that university engineering students taking courses on RP as well R&D and operating professionals from industry interested in RP are likely to find attractive. While the emphasis is on laser-based technologies, other processes are also discussed. With respect to each important RP process, the part/assembly modeling techniques, the materials used, process itself, advantages and disadvantages, accuracy and finish issues as well as application potential are discussed..
Price: $86.55 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Reverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of an object or component through analysis of its structure and function. Such analysis can then be used to redesign the object very quickly using computer-aided design in concert with rapid-manufacturing processes to produce small numbers of components adapted to the needs of a particular customer. This way of working has huge benefits of speed and flexibility over traditional mass-production-based design and manufacturing processes.

This edited collection of essays from world-leading academic and industrial authors yields insight into all aspects of reverse engineering:

• The methods of reverse engineering analysis are covered, with special emphasis on the investigation of surface and internal structures.

• Frequently-used hardware and software are assessed and advice given on the most suitable choice of system.

• Rapid prototyping is introduced and its relationship with successful reverse engineering is discussed.

• Importantly, legal matters surrounding reverse engineering are addressed as are other barriers to the adoption of these techniques.

• Applications of reverse engineering in three significant areas: automotive, aerospace, and medical engineering are reported in depth.

Reverse Engineering is a "must have" title for anyone working with advanced modern manufacturing technologies, either with a view to researching and improving them further or to making their company leaner and more agile in a competitive manufacturing marketplace.

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Price: $110.77 [Notify me when price goes down.]