Digital Circuit Design for Computer Science Students

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Transistors and Gates

   • Niklaus Wirth

   Pages 1-11

3. Combinational Circuits

   • Niklaus Wirth

   Pages 13-37

4. Latches and Registers

   • Niklaus Wirth

   Pages 39-47

5. Synchronous, Sequential Circuits

   • Niklaus Wirth

   Pages 49-63

6. Bus Systems

   • Niklaus Wirth

   Pages 65-70

7. Memories

   • Niklaus Wirth

   Pages 71-78

8. Formal Description of Synchronous Circuits

   • Niklaus Wirth

   Pages 79-93

9. Design of an Elementary Computer

   • Niklaus Wirth

   Pages 95-115

10. Multiplication and Division

    • Niklaus Wirth

    Pages 117-129

11. Design of a Computer Based on a Microprocessor

    • Niklaus Wirth

    Pages 131-137

12. Interfaces Between Asynchronous Units

    • Niklaus Wirth

    Pages 139-146

13. Serial Data Transmission

    • Niklaus Wirth

    Pages 147-173

14. Back Matter

    Pages 175-205

    PDF

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.

• Boolean algebra
• Digital Circuit Design
• Entwurf digitaler Schaltungen
• FPGA
• Field Programmable Gate Array
• Gate Array
• Hardware
• Multiplexer
• ROM
• Schaltkreisentwurf
• Transistor
• microprocessor
• processor

• Institut für Computersysteme, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

  Niklaus Wirth

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