News and New Products

Instrumentation gets its due

By Bill Schweber -- EDN, 9/25/2003

Design is important, but so is knowing what you’ve got and what it is doing. Digital and Analogue Instrumentation: Testing and Measurement by Nihal Kularatna (IEE Press, 2003, ISBN 0-85296-999-6) covers a wide range of relevant issues, including techniques, instrumentation, and applications. The 645-pg, $100, hardcover book assumes only basic engineering background, but not much more. It covers basics, such as calibration standards, units, and transducers; instrumentation, such as oscilloscopes, waveform generators, and spectrum analyzers; specialized components, such as programmable-logic devices; buses and boards; RF techniques; and even communication standards, such as DSL.

Reading this book, in whole or in selected parts, is a good way for you to refresh your memory on basics, subtleties, and advanced issues that you may not be as familiar with as you should. It clarifies points about which you may have misconceptions or gaps in your knowledge and makes you think about assumptions you are be making that affect your test-and-measurement plans and implementations.

IEE Press/Inspec, www.iee.org/publish/inspec.