Digital Design Laboratory

(1-0-3-2)

CMPE Degree: This course is Required for the CMPE degree.

EE Degree: This course is Required for the EE degree.

Lab Hours: 3 supervised lab hours and 0 unsupervised lab hours.

Technical Interest Groups / Course Categories: CMPE Common Core, EE Common Core

Course Coordinator: Kevin Toby Johnson

Prerequisites: (ECE 2020 [min C] or ECE 2030 [min C]) and (ECE 2035 [min C; with concurrency] or ECE 2036 [min C; with concurrency] or CS 1372 [min C]) or CS 2110 [min C]

Catalog Description

Design and implementation of digital systems, including a team design project. CAD tools, project design methodologies, logic synthesis, and assembly language programming.

Textbook(s)

Rapid Prototyping of Digital Systems, SOPC Edition, The Mayfield Handbook of Technical Scientific Writing, Hardware kit

Course Outcomes

Implement combinational logic circuits both with TTL devices on a protoboard and within a complex PLD.

Analyze the timing of digital circuits with oscilloscopes and logic analyzers. 

Design and implement state machines to meet design specifications. 

Design circuits with a graphical schematic CAD editor. 

Simulate circuits within a CAD tool and compare to design specifications. 

Design, implement, and simulate circuits using VHDL. 

Implement a simple computer within a PLD. 

Write machine language programs and assembly language programs for the simple computer.  

Use a complex sequential logic circuit as part of a solution to an open-ended design problem.  

Write laboratory reports and documentation conforming to technical writing standards. 

Work effectively as team members to develop and write a group report. 

Work effectively as team members to design an approved project.

Strategic Performance Indicators (SPIs)

N/A

Topic List

Laboratory projects will use a PC-based CAD environment that supports schematic capture, logic simulation, and HDL-based logic sysnthesis on FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays). Small-scale integrated circuits will be used for early labs, then HDL-based logic synthesis on FPGA-based design boards will be used for more advanced design implementations, including exposure to mixed design-entry methods. The semester will culminate with design projects specified and undertaken by teams of three to five students. Technical writing skills are developed through laboratory reports, project documentation, and an oral presentation.

  1. CAD Tools
  2. Logic Synthesis using an HDL
  3. HDL models of basic gates and logic operations
  4. Combinational design using multiple methods: primitive gates, schematic capture for FPGAs, and VHDL
  5. HDL based simulation and synthesis with FPGAs
  6. Examination of real timing issues on hardware using timing simulation, oscilloscope, and logic analyzer
  7. State machine specification, design, and simulation
  8. State machine implementation with multiple methods
  9. Design verification with logic analyzer
  10. HDL models of data storage elements
  11. ROM and RAM implementations on FPGA boards
  12. Hardware design of a simple computer with ALU, registers, control unit, memory, instructions, and I/O
  13. HDL-based simple computer simulation and implementation on FPGA board
  14. Machine language and assembly language programming for the simple computer
  15. Simulation and implementation of programs on the FPGA board
  16. Final design project problem specification (examples: video game, control application, robot, or contest)
  17. Hardware and tools available to solve the final design project problem
  18. Project engineering issues: top-down vs. bottom-up design, hierarchical decomposition, and modularity