Provides students with real-world experience with electroniccomponents on which to build their theoretical understanding, without an extensive background in math orphysics (only basic algebra is needed). The authors believethat by learning simplified behavioral models for nonlineardevices, rather than complex nonlinear equations, studentsmay actually develop a better insight into the operationof electronic circuits.

An extensive series of laboratory exercises are woveninto the course, centering around a small programmablerobot. The lab exercise manual describes the series ofexperiments, but the text can be used with or without theexercises--or with a different set of lab exercises.