The Circuit Designer's Companion [Anglais] [Broché]

It should be noted that this very valuable engineering book was written and updated by expert British engineers, and so the section on PCB layout practices revolves around millimeters and not inches. Just a slight drawback if you're a U.S. engineer where the PCB industry is interpreted mostly using mils (0.001"). I don't mind adding the conversions as I go. Have had the book for only one week as a reference at work and I've already used it several times. Highly recommended. It is actually more useful than (and works faster than) the internet.

I happen to have access to a copy of the second edition of this book courtesy of my employer. It's a great reference when you're starting a new product or shifting to a new phase of product design (e.g., PCB layout, power distribution, EMC, etc.) since it clearly and thoroughly covers a lot of the basics. Ironically, many of the topics in it are *not* what a newly-minted electrical engineer coming out of school knows -- the information in the book is a lot of very *practical* advice about what really works (or not) and how things are really done (or not) in industry, which is a topic many schools don't address... or only address at a superficial level. Even for experienced engineers, it's a good resource to quickly clarify foggy memories of things like, "let's see... is it the X or Y capacitor types that are line to line?"

There's not as many additions to the third edition as you might expect. The new material is primary regarding programmable logic devices, ADCs, and a tiny bit on power management -- largely reflecting how ubiquitous programmable logic has has become, how many more devices now need at least some real-world (analog) input, and how many more devices today are battery-powered, I guess. The "Introduction to the 3rd Edition" does mention this -- that it "has really been an exercise of revision rather than revolution." As far as I can tell, that largely just means that they re-drew some of the illustrations, re-formatted some tables, re-flowed the text to fit the now-slightly-larger page size... and hopefully went over the material with a fine-toothed comb to check for errors?

It is true that today most of what's in this book can readily be found on-line with just a little Googling. However, I still think it has significant value in that the book is so comprehensive, rather than having to bookmark/search for a dozen different web sites each covering the equivalent of a few chapters of the book, you just have to crack open this one tome and it's all covered.

Overall, while this is a good book, it's kinda hard to recommend at anything approaching the full-retail price of sixty bucks. Forty would be more like it, IMO (and happens to be about the eBook price)... and I'd be recommending it to everyone as a "must have" if it were thirty or less. As-is, I suggest trying to find a bargain on the second edition, which should be available as the 3rd edition "takes over" ... although ironically as of today (4/6/12), the second edition has a higher price tag!

The table of contents and the flow of chapters in this book made it interesting and easy to read, I read about half way through in the first sitting.
My only knock is the PCB section being in millimeters instead of mils; it would help to have both in the design rule section. Yes I can easily convert units but it slows me up.
It is a good book to use as a backup when trying to convince coworkers of grounding and power distribution schemes. Yes the information is online but we know there are different design ideas online and this book is a good way to filter them.
I am going to use it immediately in my work.