Learning about real-world PCB design

Beginner
#1

I come from a software background. When I was finishing University, I found the book series Architecture of Open Source Applications to be really useful. It shows how real world software is architected and constructed. In particular, it helps show how the basic building blocks of software that you might learn in University fit together.

Are there any similar resources for hardware design? As I gain familiarity with specific concepts in electronics design, I would love to see an overview of how they fit together, why certain design decisions are made, etc.

#2

If there’s an electronics equivalent to AOSA, it’s probably The Art of Electronics. It’s very much a textbook, however, so it’s missing that big overview of how everything fits together. But as long as you can master the material in the first few chapters, I think you’ll have everything you need to design schematics for modern devices.

Layout, on the other hand, is trickier. The basics of layout can be taught in an hour or so, and I think that’ll cover a lot of what you need. After that, when you start getting into high-speed stuff, designing for good signal integrity and EM characteristics… well, it seems a bit like black magic to me. I’m not sure what the best books on the subject are.