The art of electronics

1224 pages

English language

Published Nov. 10, 2017 by Cambridge University Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-521-80926-9
OCLC Number:: 908612314

(1 review)

This is the thoroughly revised and updated second edition of the hugely successful The Art of Electronics. Widely accepted as the authoritative text and reference on electronic circuit design, both analog and digital, this book revolutionized the teaching of electronics by emphasizing the methods actually used by circuit designers -- a combination of some basic laws, rules of thumb, and a large bag of tricks. The result is a largely nonmathematical treatment that encourages circuit intuition, brainstorming, and simplified calculations of circuit values and performance. The new Art of Electronics retains the feeling of informality and easy access that helped make the first edition so successful and popular. It is an ideal first textbook on electronics for scientists and engineers and an indispensable reference for anyone, professional or amateur, who works with electronic circuits.

10 editions

Deborah Pickett reviewed The art of electronics by Paul Horowitz

Not a multivibrator in sight!

5 stars

Golly, this book is a brain-burner, but it was the first time I really understood semiconductors. And I include the Electronics subject I did at university in that.

This textbook starts from the basics of passive components (resistors, capacitors, inductors) and by chapter 3 transistors have been covered. From there it's on to signal processing, amplification, rectification, and, inevitably digital circuits (which are, to me, less interesting).

A critical thing I noticed is that the stereotypical rookie-advanced circuit, the astable multivibrator, isn't in this book at all. There's a digital implementation with chained flip-flops, but the version with two transistors criss-crossed is nowhere to be seen. This comforts me, because the multivibrator just isn't as important in the real world as everyone makes out, and it's actually super-hard to understand.

Because it's a textbook, it has broad coverage of so many topics and it doesn't always delve into every corner …

Golly, this book is a brain-burner, but it was the first time I really understood semiconductors. And I include the Electronics subject I did at university in that.

This textbook starts from the basics of passive components (resistors, capacitors, inductors) and by chapter 3 transistors have been covered. From there it's on to signal processing, amplification, rectification, and, inevitably digital circuits (which are, to me, less interesting).

A critical thing I noticed is that the stereotypical rookie-advanced circuit, the astable multivibrator, isn't in this book at all. There's a digital implementation with chained flip-flops, but the version with two transistors criss-crossed is nowhere to be seen. This comforts me, because the multivibrator just isn't as important in the real world as everyone makes out, and it's actually super-hard to understand.

Because it's a textbook, it has broad coverage of so many topics and it doesn't always delve into every corner of electronics. Its intent is to get you up to speed with circuit design, but it'll take a few rereadings before I think I'll get even close to that.

The dry humour of the authors is noted and appreciated. I may post some choice quotations here in the future.