DIGITAL LOGIC AND STATE CONTROLLER DESIGN

Physics 496 (2 credits), Spring 2008

LECTURE: Upham Hall, Room 141, MW 3:20 – 4:10 PM

Office Hours: MTWR 11:00 – 11:50 AM

or By Appointment

Lecturer: Dr. Paul M. Rybski, Associate Professor, Physics, and

Director, Whitewater Observatory

Mailing Address: Department of Physics, Upham Hall

Email Address: rybskip@uww.edu

Office: Upham 151 (T#: 5766)

Lab.: Upham 053 (T#: 3372)

Course Prerequisites: Major or minor in Physics, Junior or Senior standing and Consent of Instructor

Course Corequisite: PHYSCS 303

Other required materials

You will need a scientific calculator, the satisfactory operation of which is your responsibility (e.g., have the instruction book with you along with a spare set of batteries). Bring it to class every day for use in activities

I. Course Objectives

The text I have chosen for this course is used in electronics courses in physics departments at major universities throughout the country. It is practically oriented. No one book teaches the subject from a professional engineering or theoretical physics point of view. Our book seeks to acquaint you with design techniques that yield working circuits with a minimum of calculation. This course will be taught in a manner consistent with its philosophy.

As you may anticipate from its title, Digital Electronics and State Controller Design will be discussed in this course. We will cover the principles of operation of digital devices and their applications, as well as their use in constructing working state controllers and how both state controllers and discrete digital devices are joined together to make unique instruments. The course will conclude with a few lectures on electronic circuit and instrument construction techniques.

I do not intend this course to make you an digital designer. Instead, you will emerge conversant with digital and state controller design terminology , permitting you, first, to study existing designs to determine their functions and possible limitations and, secondly, to create simple but stable digital designs for automating the data collection process in physics experiments.

To encourage motivation, I want you to think of some variety of robotic device that you would like to design and analyze, using the concepts and tools introduced in this course (see V.B. below). Such a project will help you integrate the concepts in the course and serve as a memory aid in mastering them. The due date for submitting to me your ideas on such a device will be March 19th. If you find by that date that you cannot think of such a device, please see me during my office hours or by appointment.

II. Course Philosophy

I am a "mastery-oriented" instructor: I want you to achieve the highest grade possible, and I will work with you -- both inside and out of class -- to make this possible. Each of you bring to this class a unique set of skills and deficiencies. If left uncorrected, your deficiencies might determine your grade in this class, a possibility both you and I must work to avoid. As important to me as your mastery of the course material is your enjoyment of it; and you certainly will not enjoy the course if you are having trouble with it. If you are having trouble, ask questions! The more you ask, the more you will learn. Remember: there is no such thing as a stupid question; malicious questions, yes, but not stupid ones. So don't hesitate to ask questions during or after class: your problems are important to me!

Those of you who might be uncomfortable with asking a question in class should visit me during my office hours or arrange for an appointment. My office hours are given above. If you need to reach me by telephone, you may call my office number (472-5766) any time from 10 am until 6 pm. If I am not in, an answering machine will take your message along with a telephone number at which I can reach you. Alternately, you can reach me by Email at rybskip@uww.edu.

III. Texts

A. Rental

Robert E. Simpson. “Introductory Electronics for Scientists and Engineers”, 2nd ed.

(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall), 1987. ISBN 0-205-08377-3.

B. Purchased

A purchased text may be required later in the semester. Every effort will be made to

keep its cost as low as possible.

IV. Course Catalog Description

None, since this is a Special Studies course. However, the following will give you a sense of the course.

Goals of digital system design: traditional logic design principles and applications; MSI, LSI and VSLI logic design principles; multivibrators, counters and registers; race conditions and hangup states; simple state machine design and applications; programmable state controller design and applications; noise and its avoidance

Objectives: This course will give students an in-depth introduction to and extensive experience with digital electronic components, their proper use in the design of digital circuits of increasing complexity and their application in the constuction of both discrete and programmable state machines.

State timeliness, need, and interest: This course is particularly timely for students in all physics major emphases, since virtually all machines in use today are based on discrete or programmable digital state controllers. This is the first time this course will be run and is a prototype for replacing the digital electronics portion of our Analog/Digital Electronics course (PHYSCS 330).

V. Course Activities and Goals

A. Lecture time

Some of our time together will involve my lecturing. Most of our time will be spent working problems, designing circuits and learning how to use computer-aided design and performance analysis tools. All textual readings will have to be done outside of class on your own time: remember you should expect to spend at least two hours outside of class for every hour you will spend in the class. Your peers at other universities are taking a similar course that requires two two-hour lectures per week. When you leave Whitewater, I want you to succeed in competition with your peers. Do you?

B. Course goals

The course hopes to achieve two goals. The first is to give you a working knowledge of digital logic, state controllers and microprocessors. You will learn the fundamentals of specialized integrated circuits that permit computers to monitor real physical processes and to alter the state variables of these processes. You will learn about the sensors necessary to measure real physical quantities and about the actuators computers must use to control the rates at which these processes proceed. The second goal is to give you sufficient practical knowledge of how to fuse these functional components together to create working, microprocessor-based instruments, including robots. You will choose a robot to design, construct and program that will bring together all of what you have learned above. Given the texts I have chosen and diligent effort on your part, you should be able to accomplish these goals in 15 weeks.

In achieving these goals, this course will introduce you to a variety of microcontrollers and show you how designing smart instruments or machines with these chips is a simpler task than creating interfaces for IBM PC-compatible computers which function equivalently. Given diligent effort on your part, you will leave this course with a practical command of some of the computer-based hardware and software tools that are creating the instruments and machines that are rapidly transforming our world. Your effort will include working on a programmable, possibly autonomous robot. Tethered robots have already done so in many manufacturing processes. Autonomous robots are just being introduced into industry for security applications, and some have made it into the home (the Roomba^TM home vacuum). Humanoid robots are being investigated worldwide, and Japan has the lead in constructing truly mobile bipedal humanoids.

VI. Course Expectations of the Student

Apart from preparing good lectures and being responsive to questions, there are other ways in which I will try to enrich your learning experience.

A. Homework

Mastery of conceptual material in the physical sciences is greatly aided by frequent problem assignments, so I intend to assign at least one problem per lecture period. The answers are due the following lecture period. On assigned homework, I encourage you to work in study groups. You may collaborate with classmates in arriving at a given solution, but each of you is responsible for composing his or her own answer. As in other physics courses, I am most concerned about your procedure in solving a problem, not just your getting the correct answer. So show complete solutions in answering all questions.

To provide you with rapid feedback, an answer sheet with fully worked-out answers will be distributed at the beginning of the class when homework problems are due. For that reason, late homework will not be accepted, save in cases of personal or family emergency and about which I must be informed by telephone as soon as possible.

B. Quizzes

Quizzes will be a special form of homework. They will be assigned on Wednesdays and will attempt to draw together the material discussed during the week. Unlike the homework, you must work on quizzes by yourself. Since they are "take-home" in nature, you will be on your honor to complete the work yourself.

C. Tests

A Mid-term, an End-term and a Final Exam will be given in the course. The Mid-term and End-term will each cover half of the course, The Final Exam will be comprehensive. The Mid-term and End-term will be "take-home" and is to be completed individually on the honor system. The Final will involve both a “take-home” and an "in-class" component (time and date to be determined). As with the Mid-term and End-term, the “take-home” Final must be completed individually on the honor system. The “in-class” portion will be "open-book" and "open-note".

D. Extra Credit

From time to time, I will assign Extra Credit work for those who desire to acquire knowledge of greater depth in analog or digital electronics. One or more of these may be projects which will take an extended period of time. See below for how Extra Credit will figure in your final course grade.

E. Grade Assignment

Grades on the homework and quizzes will be assigned on an absolute scale:

A = 90 - 100; B = 80 - 89.9; C = 70 - 79.9; D = 60 - 69.9; and F < 60.

Only the tests will be "curved", depending on class performance. Such a curve will only help your grade; no curve will be any higher than the scale given above.

Your final grade will depend on your homework, quiz and test grades weighted as follows: Homework -- 10%; Quizzes -- 15%; the Mid-term and End-term Exams -- 20% each; and the Final Exam -- 35%. Extra Credit activities will add an additional 2.5% to your existing grade, on a percentage basis out of 100%. Your lowest grade in each of the homework and quiz categories will be dropped before your final grade is assigned.

VII. Attendance

Attendance at all lectures is expected, and attendance will be taken. If you must miss a lecture or laboratory, please call me in advance and make arrangements for someone in the class to share their notes with you. Work assigned in a given lecture that you miss will still be due the following lecture, unless you make other arrangements with me in advance. Laboratories missed must be made up within one week of the missed laboratory activity, unless you make other arrangements with me in advance. Any work assigned in lecture or any scheduled laboratory activity which is not made up within a period of time negotiated with me in advance not be accepted and will be recorded as a zero.

Attendance at announced examinations is mandatory. Those with unexcused absences will be given a zero grade for this portion of the course. Those with excused absences will be able to make up the missed test by appointment with the instructor. Permission to miss an examination must be obtained from the instructor prior to examination.

University policy adopted by Faculty Senate and the Whitewater Student Government states that students will not be academically penalized for missing class in order to participate in university-sanctioned events. They will be provided an opportunity as outlined above to make up any work that is missed. A university-sanctioned event is defined as any intercollegiate athletic contest or other such event as determined by the Provost. Activity sponsors are responsible for obtaining the Provost's prior approval of an event as being university-sanctioned and for providing the Provost an official list of participants. Students are responsible for notifying their instructors in advance of their participation in such events.

VIII. Classroom Etiquette

I expect your attention and polite cooperation during all class functions: courtesy given results in courtesy returned. Talking amongst yourselves during lectures will not be tolerated, since it disrupts the progress of the class and diminishes the value of the class for those who sincerely wish to learn the material. If you have a question about the material or the lecture in progress, ask me, not your neighbor. Those who exhibit uncivil behavior will be warned. Persistently disruptive students will be dropped from this class.

IX. Question-and-Answer Sessions and Office Hours

Questions will be answered at any time so long as they are relevant to the work at hand. Otherwise, questions will be answered before or after class, by appointment or during my regularly scheduled office hours.

X. Required Policy Statements

A. University Policy Statements

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is dedicated to a safe, supportive and non-discriminatory learning environment. It is the responsibility of all undergraduate and graduate students to familiarize themselves with University policies regarding Special Accommodations, Misconduct, Religious Beliefs Accommodation, Discrimination and Absence due to University-sponsored Events. (For details, please refer to the Undergraduate and Graduate Timetables; the Rights and Responsibilities section of the Undergraduate Bulletin; the Academic Requirements and Policies and the Facilities and Services sections of the Graduate Bulletin; the Student Academic Disciplinary Procedures [UWS Chapter 14]; and the Student Nonacademic Disciplinary Procedures [UWS Chapter 17].)

B. Special Needs Statement

"Students with special needs should contact their instructor" within the first week of class so that their needs can be met either within the department or with the assistance of staff from elsewhere on campus.

XI. Tentative Course Schedule

A. Goals of Digital System Design

a. Standardization of modern digital circuit components

b. Problems of cost

c. Problems of packaging

d. The real goals of design

e. The design specification

B. Traditional Logic Design

a. Combinational versus sequential

b. Truth tables, Boolean equations and “minterm” form

c. Veitch diagrams

d. Factoring logic equations and DeMorgan’s theorems

e. Digital logic building blocks

C. MSI and LSI Logic Design

a. Designing for MSI and LSI

b. Digital multiplexors/selectors

c. Decoders/demultiplexers

d. Multidimensional addressing

e. MSI combinatorial logic circuits

f. Read-only memories and programmable read-only memories

g. Programmable logic arrays

h. Arithmetic circuitry

D. Multivibrators, Counters and Registers

a. Types of multivibrators

b. Registers and counters

c. Designing counters with flip-flops

d. Varieties of counters

e. Defining control-state counters

Mid-Term Examination

F. Simple State Machine Design

a. Definition of the state machine

b. Basic concepts of state machine analysis

c. Synchronous state machine design

d. Matching synchronous to asynchronous systems

e. General state machine architecture

G. Principles of Digital Systems Design

a. Design by trial-and-error

b. Top-down design

c. Design procedures and examples

d. Reliability and timing considerations

H. Alternate State Machine Design

a. State machine versus microprocessor-based digital systems

b. Alternate circuit configurations

c. Exchanging circuitry for states

d. Design examples

I. Noise and Reflections

a. Wiring as a transmission line

b. Effects of reflection and ringing on circuit operation

c. Power and ground wiring, current-dumping noise

d. Crosstalk in logic interconnections and cables

e. Differential signal transmission

J. Electronic Construction Techniques

a. Prototyping methods

b. Printed circuits

c. Instrument construction

End-term examination

Final examination