Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:26:58 -0400 From: keithvz at verizon.net To: Subject: Early 80's electronic/computer design books I'm interested to learn the titles of some standard reference books on electronic and microcomputer design from the early 1980's. I've been reverse engineering many aspects of the Commodore Amiga. While I have a decent library of Amiga books, I'd like to expand the collection to include the "de facto standard" reference texts of the day --- to give me more of an insight into the minds of the designers. I've read some "history of the amiga" columns, "Life on the edge", various interviews and so on. If you could go back, what books would you find on the bookshelves of these engineers? If you graduated college or a technical school in 1980, what were the popular reference texts used? 68000 reference books? 6800 reference books? standard information on bus arbitration, or memory controllers, or maybe LSI chip layout? standard OS design practices? I know I'm all over the place. I've started playing with FPGA's and while I'm wholly unqualified to be doing so, I'm enjoying it --- but would like to understand how this stuff was done prior to the modern age. It's like learning the command line first, so that when the gui-front end comes, you know what's happening in the back. Thanks Keith P.S. I'd almost be willing to bet there is one or two books called "contemporary microcomputer design" or "contemporary electronic design" both with a copyright date of 1980. I could be wrong. :)

I'm interested to learn the titles of some standard reference books on electronic and microcomputer design from the early 1980's. I've been reverse engineering many aspects of the Commodore Amiga. While I have a decent library of Amiga books, I'd like to expand the collection to include the "de facto standard" reference texts of the day --- to give me more of an insight into the minds of the designers. If you could go back, what books would you find on the bookshelves of these engineers? If you graduated college or a technical school in 1980, what were the popular reference texts used? Thanks Keith