What do you think?
Rate this book
Bebop to the Boolean Boogie: An Unconventional Guide to Electronics
From reviews of the first edition:
"If you want to be reminded of the joy of electronics, take a look at Clive (Max) Maxfield's book Bebop to the Boolean Boogie."
--Computer Design
"Lives up to its title as a useful and entertaining technical guide....well-suited for students, technical writers, technicians, and sales and marketing people."
--Electronic Design
"Writing a book like this one takes audacity! ... Maxfield writes lucidly on a variety of complex topics without 'writing down' to his audience."--EDN
"A highly readable, well-illustrated guided tour through basic electronics." -Science Books & Films
"Extremely readable and easy to understand, you'll wonder how people learned about this stuff before this book came along." --New Book Bulletin, Computer Literacy Bookshops
* The difference between the analog and digital worlds.
* What logic gates are and how to make them from transistors.
504 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1995
27 people are currently reading
162 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 26, 2021
Bebop to the Boolean Boogie
I'm not even sure if I should review this book, as try as I did, I only went through 70% of it before it became too hard for me to understand. So do take my opinions with a pinch of salt.
If you have any formal or semi-formal education in engineering, physics or any subject along those lines, then if you take the time, this book will arm you with a basic understanding of electronics(hopefully). If you are a normal high school student with only basic physics like me, where 75% of the concepts in this book are new to you, it would take you too much time to search and read elsewhere every time you encounter a new concept or component. (or I'm just too dumb)
But it is definitely still worth it to read as far as you can go in this book. It presents the core concepts of electronics well, that even if you don't understand the harder/more in-depth parts of the book (which there are a lot), you'll still get a great idea of what is electronics and the working principle of it. In such a book that covers a large topic, it goes without saying that some concepts were not explained in enough detail, but if it does so then the book will be at least 2 times longer.
Hence as I mentioned, it's not so much beginner-friendly as you'll have to read a lot more on the side. There were also a few topics that revolved around engineering problems and solutions such as in where calculations are made by logic gates, what is the best way to represent signs in numbers, after giving a few alternatives, it went on to present the current conventional one, which is to let the first bit in a byte represents a negative number and let the other bits to represent positive ones so that there won't be conflict between what each bit represents.
To sum up the book in a sentence: "Computers are run with memory, memory can be made from bistables, which are made from logic gates, which can be made from field-effect transistors, which are made from doped silicon." And that's really it.
I'm not even sure if I should review this book, as try as I did, I only went through 70% of it before it became too hard for me to understand. So do take my opinions with a pinch of salt.
If you have any formal or semi-formal education in engineering, physics or any subject along those lines, then if you take the time, this book will arm you with a basic understanding of electronics(hopefully). If you are a normal high school student with only basic physics like me, where 75% of the concepts in this book are new to you, it would take you too much time to search and read elsewhere every time you encounter a new concept or component. (or I'm just too dumb)
But it is definitely still worth it to read as far as you can go in this book. It presents the core concepts of electronics well, that even if you don't understand the harder/more in-depth parts of the book (which there are a lot), you'll still get a great idea of what is electronics and the working principle of it. In such a book that covers a large topic, it goes without saying that some concepts were not explained in enough detail, but if it does so then the book will be at least 2 times longer.
Hence as I mentioned, it's not so much beginner-friendly as you'll have to read a lot more on the side. There were also a few topics that revolved around engineering problems and solutions such as in where calculations are made by logic gates, what is the best way to represent signs in numbers, after giving a few alternatives, it went on to present the current conventional one, which is to let the first bit in a byte represents a negative number and let the other bits to represent positive ones so that there won't be conflict between what each bit represents.
To sum up the book in a sentence: "Computers are run with memory, memory can be made from bistables, which are made from logic gates, which can be made from field-effect transistors, which are made from doped silicon." And that's really it.
November 19, 2011
It's unconventional in that it manages to put good humor to learning electronics and logic functions/devices. It's a guide because it doesn't go in depth with every subject. This book gives you enough information to refresh your memory on something previous learned or it can be used as a guide to understand the basics of complex topics.
August 21, 2008
great for learning electronics. also, proof that you shouldn't just a book by it's cover (or title)
July 9, 2012
Very cool book
May 23, 2021
If you ever happen to find yourself not being a formally trained EE in a professional setting surrounded by EEs and doing work that's more related to EE than your actual educational background, this book is great to map out the wide and wonderful world of things you don't know that you should have at least heard of.
February 10, 2022
This version is a little dated. Interestingly, some of the predictions about future technology are correct.
April 4, 2019
.
.
Foreword
Contents
Section 1: Fundamental Concepts
1. Analog Versus Digital
2. Atoms, Molecules, And Crystals
3. Conductors And Insulators; Voltage, Current, Resistance, Capacitance And Inductance
4. Semiconductors: Diodes And Transistors
5. Primitive Logic Functions
6. Using Transistors To Build Primitive Logic Functions
7. Alternative Numbering Systems
8. Binary Arithmetic
9. Boolean Algebra
10. Karnaugh Maps
11. Using Primitive Logic Functions To Build More Complex Functions
12. State Diagrams, State Tables And State Machines
13. Analog-To-Digital And Digital-To-Analog
Section 2: Components And Processes
14. Integrated Circuits (ICs)
15. Memory Ics
16. Programmable Ics
17. Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs)
18. Circuit Boards (pwbs And Dwbs)
19. Hybrids
20. Multichip Modules (mcms)
21. Alternative And Future Technologies
Appendix A: Assertion-Level Logic
Appendix B: Positive Logic Versus Negative Logic
Appendix C: Reed-Müller Logic
Appendix D: Gray Codes
Appendix E: A Reed-Müller Extraction Utility
Appendix F: Linear Feedback Shift Registers (LFSRs)
Appendix G: Pass-Transistor Logic
Appendix H: No-Holds-Barred Seafood Gumbo
Abbreviations And Acronyms
Glossary
Dramatis Personae
Index
.
Foreword
Contents
Section 1: Fundamental Concepts
1. Analog Versus Digital
2. Atoms, Molecules, And Crystals
3. Conductors And Insulators; Voltage, Current, Resistance, Capacitance And Inductance
4. Semiconductors: Diodes And Transistors
5. Primitive Logic Functions
6. Using Transistors To Build Primitive Logic Functions
7. Alternative Numbering Systems
8. Binary Arithmetic
9. Boolean Algebra
10. Karnaugh Maps
11. Using Primitive Logic Functions To Build More Complex Functions
12. State Diagrams, State Tables And State Machines
13. Analog-To-Digital And Digital-To-Analog
Section 2: Components And Processes
14. Integrated Circuits (ICs)
15. Memory Ics
16. Programmable Ics
17. Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs)
18. Circuit Boards (pwbs And Dwbs)
19. Hybrids
20. Multichip Modules (mcms)
21. Alternative And Future Technologies
Appendix A: Assertion-Level Logic
Appendix B: Positive Logic Versus Negative Logic
Appendix C: Reed-Müller Logic
Appendix D: Gray Codes
Appendix E: A Reed-Müller Extraction Utility
Appendix F: Linear Feedback Shift Registers (LFSRs)
Appendix G: Pass-Transistor Logic
Appendix H: No-Holds-Barred Seafood Gumbo
Abbreviations And Acronyms
Glossary
Dramatis Personae
Index
February 22, 2020
A really good book for getting into electronics. It explained it well and kept a clear understanding for any newcomer with a few breadcrumbs of preexisting knowledge
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews