Digital Circuit Design for Computer Science Students

Description

This book emerged from lecture notes of a course taught in the second year to students of Computer Science at the Federal Institute of Tech­ nology, Zurich. The topic of hardware design plays a relatively minor role in Compu­ ter Science curricula at many universities. Most courses concentrate on the various aspects of theory, software, and of information sys­ tems. Students therefore obtain few opportunities to deal with con­ crete engineering problems and physical devices. We consider this as rather unfortunate, particularly for technical universities. As a result, we observe a growing gap between interest in and understanding of design issues involving not only software but also hardware and inter­ faces. This is regrettable at a time when new and advanced solutions to many problems are often crucially influenced by recent hardware de­ velopments, at a time when the engineer needs to be competent in both software and hardware issues in order to fmd an optimally inte­ grated, competitive solution. It turns out that the hesitation of many students in Computer Science to take an active interest in hardware - his or her daily tool! - does not only stem from a preference of "clean", abstract concepts with a corre­ sponding distaste for dealing with concrete components, construction techniques, and the "dirty" realities inflicted by nature, but also stems from the lack of a bridge between the two realms. 1. Transistors and Gates 2. Combinational Circuits 3. Latches and Registers 4. Synchronous, Sequential Circuits 5. Bus Systems 6. Memories 7. Formal Description of Synchronous Circuits 8. Design of an Elementary Computer 9. Multiplication and Division 10. Design of a Computer Based on a Microprocessor 11. Interfaces Between Asynchronous Units 12. Serial Data Transmission Appendix 1: Implementations Based on the Programmable Gate Array AT6002 Appendix 2: Syntax of Lola Selected Design Exercises