lular phones including some discussion on

the maintenance procedures. Chapter 12

(pp. 113-120) is a very brief chapter on the
future of wireless communication such as
digital cellular in time division multiple ac-
cess (TDMA), code division multiple access
(CDMA), and other related schemes and fea-
tures. There is a glossary on the abbreviated
technical terms at the end of the book to-
gether with an index.
The main theme for this book is to tell
the average consumer that all the new cel-
lular phones operate at very low power
with very little health risk and the price is
all very low, but one needs to watch for the
billing charges. For example, whether a
person makes most of his daily phone calls
within one cell zone may make a differ-
ence. On the other hand, there are reports
that in many parts of the country there is
no cell station, possibly because the local
communities object to the installation of
poles for the cell station; thus, there are
dead zones for cellular phones.
The author includes many illustrative
figures and tables, which may be helpful to
the readers, and the book’s presentation is
very clear and readable with nice printing.
This book is a useful guide for the average,
nontechnical reader and for consumers
buying and using cellular phones. There
are many earlier books that are mainly for
designers and installers, including a new
book on digital systems titled Handbook
of CDMA System Design, Engineering and
Optimization, by the members of the tech-
nical staff of Bell Laboratories. CDMA is
mentioned only by name in Chapter 12 of
this book as a future development.
—H. Hsu

VERILOG QUICKSTART!
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO
SIMULATION AND SYNTHESIS
IN VERILOG, 2ND ED.
By James M. Lee. Kluwer Academic Pub-
lishers, 2000.
As digital projects became more and
more complex, the use of a hardware de-
scription languages (HDL) for design re-
placed the “old fashioned” schematic
entry design method. This book talks
about Verilog (IEEE1364-1999), one of
the most used HDLs. Though not a com-

CIRCUITS & DEVICES ■ MARCH 2001 49 ■

Product Info - www.ieee.org/magazines/DirectAccess49

plete guide to the standard [for this aim
you must use a language reference man-
ual (LRM)], the book covers most of the
commonly used constructs of the lan-
guage, showing theirs practical use.
The reader is introduced to the language
throughout the first three chapters. Basic
concepts and conventions together with
structural modeling techniques (intercon-
nections of blocks) and their use are pre-
sented. The power of the language can be
appreciated by the reader in the following
three chapters. Behavioral modeling is ex-
plained, showing the usage of the basic
primitives in constructing basic structures.
The various built-in operators of the lan-
guage are explained, and in Chapter 6, be-
havioral modeling is used to build and
stimulate real structures. The next three
chapters deal with advanced Verilog con-
structs. Chapter 7 explains the user-de-
fined primitives, a way to incorporate spe-
cial functions using truth tables. The usage
of parametric modules to adapt standard
modules to generic tasks is explained in
Chapter 8 while Chapter 9 explains the
power of the state machine construct.
The aim of Chapter 10 is to provide mod-
eling guideline rules for both combina-
torial as well as sequential circuits.
Selection of a suitable construct to model
a circuit and how this choice is reflected
both in simulation and in synthesis is ex-
plained in Chapter 11.
The last step in HDL modeling and sim-
ulation (i.e., the testbench construction)
is discussed in the last three chapters:
Chapter 12 shows how to design a
testbench and build a test program, Chap-
ter 14 explains some basic techniques and
strategies for applying them to profitably
debug a Verilog code, and in Chapter 13 a
quick view of the most common modeling
errors and how to avoid and correct them
is shown. Appendix A, primarily devoted to
the less-experienced users, shows the
gate-level details (Verilog truth tables) of
the built-in primitives.
The book comes with a CD-ROM con-
taining both the examples used in the book
and other examples to be use as starting
point for your exercises. In the CD-ROM is
included the SILOS III simulator to be used
for a first approach to the language.
The book is well written and gives the
reader a full view on the language, giving
also to the novice a way to rapidly interact
with the language. Also, the advanced
reader can obtain benefits from the book,
which helps focus on the various tech-
niques and constitutes a more readable
reference compared to an LRM.
—Flavio Ferrari CD■

BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW

IEEE Circuits & Devices Magazine has received the books listed below. If you are willing and qualified, you can review
one of these books in exchange for a short (~500 word) written review, which we will edit and publish either in the maga-
zine or on our homepage.
For a complete list of titles available, please visit our website at http://users.erols.com/circuits. For more information con-
tact Editor-in-Chief Ron Waynant at +1 301 827 4688 or r.waynant@ ieee.org. For a complete list of titles available, please
visit our web site at http://www.users.erols.com/circuits.

01-19 Electrical Cables for Power and Signal Transmission 01-25 Wireless Marketing
By Oswald I. Gilbertson By Robert A. Steuernagel
ISBN 0-471-35996-3
ISBN 0-471-31650-4
353 pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2000 162 pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2000

01-23 Gateways Into Electronics 01-26 Turbo Codes: Principles and Applications
By Peter Carroll Dunn By Branka Vucetic and Jinhong Yuan
ISBN 0-471-25448-7
ISBN 0-7923-7868-7
658 pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2000 312 pages
Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000

01-24 Analysis and Design of Integrated Circuit 01-28 Adaptive 3D Sound Systems
Antenna Modules By John Garas
Edited by K.C. Gupta and Peter S. Hall
ISBN 0-7923-7907-1
ISBN 0-471-19044-6
424 pages 190 pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000

■ 50 CIRCUITS & DEVICES ■ MARCH 2001