Description
Electronics, perhaps more than any other field of technology, has enjoyed an explosive development in the last four decades. Thus it was with some trepidation that we attempted, in 1980, to bring out a definitive volume teaching the art of the subject. By “art” we meant the kind of mastery that comes from an intimate familiarity with real circuits, actual devices, and the like, rather than the more abstract approach often favored in textbooks on electronics. Of course, in a rapidly evolving field, such a nuts-and-bolts approach has its hazards – most notably a frighteningly quick obsolescence.
The pace of electronics technology did not disappoint us! Hardly was the ink dry on the first edition before we felt foolish reading our words about “the classic [2Kbyte] 2716 EPROM . . . with a price tag of about $25.” They’re so classic you can’t even get them anymore, having been replaced by EPROMs 64 times as large, and costing less than half the price! Thus a major element of this revision responds to improved devices and methods – completely rewritten chapters on microcomputers and microprocessors (using the IBM PC and the 68008) and substantially revised chapters on digital electronics (including PLDs, and the new HC and AC logic families), on op-amps and precision design (reflecting the availability of excellent FET- input op-amps), and on construction techniques (including CAD/ CAM). Every table has been revised, some substantially; for example, in Table 4.1 (operational amplifiers) only 65% of the original 120 entries survived, with 135 new op-amps added.
We have used this opportunity to respond to readers’ suggestions and to our own experiences using and teaching from the first edition. Thus we have rewritten the chapter on FETs (it was too complicated) and repositioned it before the chapter on op-amps (which are increasingly of FET construction). We have added a new chapter on low-power and micropower design (both analog and digital), a field bch
important and neglected. Most of the remaining chapters have been extensively revised.
We have added many new tables, including A/D and D/A converters, digital logic components, and low-power devices, and throughout the book we have expanded the number of figures. The book now contains 78 tables (available separately as The Horowitz and Hill Component Selection Tables) and over 1000 figures. Throughout the revision we have strived to retain the feeling of informality and easy access that made the first edition so successful and popular, both as reference and text. We are aware of the difficulty students often experience when approaching electronics for the first time: The field is densely interwoven, and there is no path of learning that takes you, by logical steps, from neophyte to broadly competent designer. Thus we have added extensive cross-referencing throughout the text; in addition, we have expanded the separate Laboratory Manual into a Student Manual {Student Manual for The Art of Electronics, by Thomas C. Hayes and Paul Horowitz),complete with additional worked examples of circuit designs, explanatory material, reading assignments, laboratory exercises, and solutions to selected problems. By offering a student supplement, we have been able to keep this volume concise and rich with detail, as requested by our many readers who use the volume primarily as a reference work.
We hope this new edition responds to all our readers’ needs – both students and practicing engineers. We welcome suggestions and corrections, which should be addressed directly to Paul Horowitz, Physics Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. In preparing this new edition, we are appreciative of the help we received from Mike Aronson and Brian Matthews (AOX, Inc.), John Greene (University of Cape Town), Jeremy Avigad and Tom Hayes (Harvard University), Peter Horowitz (EVI, Inc.), Don Stern, and Owen Walker. We thank Jim Mobley for his excellent copyediting, Sophia Prybylski and David Tranah of Cambridge University Press for their encouragement and professional dedication, and the never-sleeping typesetters at Rosenlaui Publishing Services, Inc. for their masterful composition in T^X.
Finally, in the spirit of modern jurisprudence, we remind you to read the legal notice here appended.
Paul Horowitz
WinfieldHill