• Core Course.
• Five (5) Credit Units.
• Prerequisites: None.
• Content:
  • Introduction: switches and logic operations (AND-OR-NOT); combinations, decoding, multiplexing; analog and digital systems, advantages and applications of digital systems; simple circuits using relays, feedback and memory.
  • Combinational Circuits: AND-OR-NOT operations, truth tables, examples, logic gates and IC chips, Boolean Algebra, Venn diagrams, Karnaugh maps and simplification.
  • Binary Numbers and Arithmetic Operations: number of combinations and binary counting, unsigned integers, binary addition, combinational circuits for addition. Multiplication / division / remainder by powers of 2, i.e. bit-field selection. Brief introduction to signed integers: wrap-around, 2's complement representation, signed addition, the negative of a number, add/subtract circuit.
  • Memory: feedback, unstable and bistable circuits, oscillators, flip-flops (RS and D type), registers, RAM and address decoding.
  • Sequential Circuits: reusing hardware, need for timing signals, two-phase clocks, examples (counter, shifting, register transfer), master-slave flip-flops.
  • Datapath: registers, multiplexors, ALU's, examples of simple datapaths, tristate drivers, buses, SRAM memories.
  • A simple Processor: example datapath of a simple accumulator-type processor, machine and assembly language of the simple processor & example assembly programs: sequential code, branching and loops, indirect accesses and arrays.
  • FSM and Control: finite state machines (FSM) and examples: traffic light controller, serial line receiver, the control FSM of the simple processor.
  • Technology: integrated circuits, cost, speed, consumption, and factors affecting them.
• Laboratory Exercises: 2-hour weekly laboratory exercises (each student individually) using:
  • switches, LED's, breadboards, relays, TTL and CMOS chips;
  • a simple datapath of an accumulator-style processor using two separate memories (IMEM, DMEM) and lots of 7-segment displays to monitor its state; students build an elementary computer out of it, by implementing its control section on the breadboard.
• Book: John Wakerly: "Digital Design: Principles & Practices", Updated Edition, Third Edition, Prentice Hall, 2001; Greek translation (Kleidarithmos Editions, 2002), ISBN 960-209-728-0.

We deeply appreciate Altera University Program's donation of 10 thousand Euro worth of hardware to this course's lab.