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Computer Science Syllabus - Digital Electronics
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Digital Electronics

This course is taken by Part IA (50% Option), Part II (General) and Diploma students.

Lecturer: Dr I.J. Wassell

No. of lectures: 11

This course is a prerequisite for ECAD (Part IB) and VLSI Design (Part II).

Aims

The aims of this course are to present the principles of combinational and sequential digital logic design and optimisation at a gate level. The use of transistors for interfacing and constructing gates is also introduced.

Lectures

  • Introduction. The parts of a simple computer. Binary and representation of integers in binary. ASCII codes for characters. Switch logic.

  • Boolean algebra. Truth tables and boolean algebra. Idealised logic gates and symbols. DeMorgan's rules. Logic to perform addition with ripple carry.

  • Logic minimisation. Normal forms. Boolean cubes and Karnaugh maps for boolean optimisation.

  • Complexities of logic design. Multilevel logic. An introduction to timing diagrams. Digital signals in the analog world. Hazards and hazard elimination. Fast carry propagation.

  • Flip-flops. Memory elements, state and state diagrams. RS asynchronous flip-flop. Synchronous flip-flops: D, T and JK flip-flops. Setup and hold times.

  • Synchronous state machines. Moore and Mealy finite state machines. Reset and self starting. State transition diagrams.

  • Further state machines. State assignment and unique state encoding. One hot encoding. State minimisation.

  • Asynchronous state machines. Fundamental mode machines and Muller C-elements. Asynchronous state machines in terms of RS flip-flops.

  • Discrete components. Revision of resistance, Ohm's law and capacitance. Characteristics of diodes, NMOS and PMOS field effect transistors. NMOS and CMOS inverters. Rise and fall times. Voltage followers.

  • Programmable logic. The structure and use of programmable logic arrays (PLAs). A brief introduction to FPGAs.

  • Memories and interfaces. Use of SRAM and ROM: addressing, control signals, buses and tristate drivers.

Objectives

At the end of the course students should

  • understand the relationships between combination logic and boolean algebra, and between sequential logic and finite state machines

  • be able to design and minimise combinational logic

  • appreciate tradeoffs in complexity and speed of combinational designs

  • understand how state can be stored in a digital logic circuit

  • understand the difference between asynchronous and synchronous logic

  • know how to design a simple finite state machine from a specification and be able to implement this in gates and edge triggered flip-flops

  • understand how to use MOS transistors

Recommended reading

* Katz, R.H. (2004). Contemporary logic design. Benjamin/Cummings. The 1994 edition is more than sufficient.
Hayes, J.P. (1993). Introduction to digital logic design. Addison-Wesley.

Books for reference:

Horowitz, P. & Hill, W. (1989). The art of electronics. Cambridge University Press (2nd ed.) (more analog).
Weste, N.H.E. & Harris, D. (2005). CMOS VLSI Design - a circuits and systems perspective. Addison-Wesley (3rd ed.).
Mead, C. & Conway, L. (1980). Introduction to VLSI systems. Addison-Wesley (used in Part II VLSI).
Crowe, J. & Hayes-Gill, B. (1998). Introduction to digital electronics. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Gibson, J.R. (1992). Electronic logic circuits. Butterworth-Heinemann.



next up previous contents
Next: Elementary Use of the Up: Michaelmas Term 2006: Part Previous: Data Structures and Algorithms   Contents
Christine Northeast
Tue Sep 12 09:56:33 BST 2006