Digital Design 2

Applying MSI chips for designing functional units. Multiplexers, demultiplexers, decoders counters, shift registers, arithmetic units and comparators.

Binary arithmetic, application of binary adders for subtraction. The carry-look-ahead adder.

Implementation of a simply ALU. Binary multiplication with adders. BCD arithmetic.

Most common types of application specific integrated circuits (ASIC). Memory, PLA, FPGA building blocks and their application in realizing combinational or sequential logic. The structure of a simple RAM based FPGA, its resources and configuration. Defining digital systems in a hardware descriptor language (Verilog).

Memory circuits, writable and read-only memories. Structure of a static RAM cell.

Architecture of digital systems. Control and data path. Classification and history of bus systems. Synchronous and asynchronous bus systems. Purpose of different connections in a bus system.

Basic principles and evolution of the architectures of digital computers. Microprocessors and microcomputers.

Functional units and bus systems of microcomputers. Block diagram of a typical microcomputer. Bus signals of a simple microprocessor. Reset, clock generation and the READY signal.

Interfacing of RAM and ROM units to bus systems. Typical timing constraints of memory circuits. Increasing data path width, increasing memory capacity. Application of flash memories.

Basic principles of assembly programming. The instruction set of a simple microprocessor. Data moves, branches, arithmetic and logical instructions, addressing modes, macros and assembler directives.

Memory organization (FIFO, LIFO, stack). Implementation of stack memory (hardware, software). Concepts of subroutines, conditional and unconditional calls, return instructions.

Interrupt systems in microcomputers. The concept of interrupts, priority structures, programmable interrupt-handling units. The structure of a typical interrupt handler routine. Automatic or programmed context saving.

Special functional units in simple microprocessors. Maskable and nonmaskable interrupts, test inputs and direct outputs. Special instructions.

Application of a common programmable interrupt controller.

Programmable input-output system. Parallel and serial data transmission units. Organization of serial data communication, synchronous or asynchronous data transfer. Application of an USART circuit. Application of a parallel input-output circuit.

Direct memory access (DMA) and its controller interfacing. Single cycle or two cycle DMA transfer. Application of a typical DMA controller.

Interfacing basic peripheral units (LCD displays, switches, pushbuttons) to a microprocessor bus. software routines for handling such peripherals.

Overview of modern memory types (NVRAM, FRAM, MRAM, SDRAM, Flash). Internal organization and interface of high capacity memory modules.

Microcontroller architectures. The features of a common microcontroller family. Design example with microcontrollers.