Course Instructors: Mariana Mocanu, Ion Bucur, Catalin Chera, Costin Gabriel Chiru

Computer hardware has experienced the most dramatic improvement in capabilities and costs ever known to humankind. This course will introduce the fundamental techniques for designing and implementing systems. Complex hardware systems can be best understood in terms of description of increasing levels of detail. The system level abstractly describes the input, output, and behavior. A system level description focuses on timing and sequencing using graphs, flow charts or computer programs. The logic level deals with the composition of building blocks, called logic gates, which forms the physical components used by system engineers. At the circuit level, the building blocks are electrical elements, such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors, which implement the logic designer's components. Logic level will be used mostly, in this course, but several aspects will be detailed using circuit level description. Design is the process by which incomplete and inexact requirements and specifications, describing the purpose and function of an object, are made precise. Implementation uses this precise description to create a physical product.

Syllabus:

• Introduction.
• Combinational Logic Design Principles.
• Combinational Logic Design Practices.
• Combinational Logic Technologies.
• Case Studies in Combinational Logic Design.
• Sequential Logic Design Principles.
• Sequential Logic Design Practices.
• Sequential Logic Design Examples.
• Sequential Logic Technologies.
• Case Studies in Sequential Logic Design.
• Memory, CPLDs, and FPGAs.
• Additional Advanced Topics.