1.0 Purpose
To provide students with practical logic circuit and digital system design experience using TTL components and CAD software.
2.0 Procedure
The course will consist of 9 formal laboratory experiments and two course projects. Students will be performing their experiments and projects in a group of two. The laboratory experiments are intended to introduce basic logic devices, digital integrated circuits and some elementary design and construction method. The design projects on the other hand will require students to apply their knowledge of digital design to practical problems. All laboratory experiments will have pre laboratory exercises and laboratory experiments. Pre laboratory exercises must be completed before coming to the labs. The lab experiments consist of building, verifying and testing one or more of the circuits designed in the pre laboratory exercises either using both software and hardware or hardware only as specified in the laboratory manual.
2.1 Pre laboratory Exercises
Pre laboratory exercises are meant for some pertinent preliminary analysis
and design of the circuit to be built in the lab. This could include the
design steps and its final solution. Each student is required to have a
log book. All works regarding the pre laboratory exercises or other preliminary
work must be done in this log book. Marks will be deducted if those works
are done in separate sheets of papers.
It is very important that these exercises must be completed before the
actual lab period or else students will not be able to do the experiment
or will not be able to complete the experiment at the end of the lab period.
Your lab demonstrator will check your log book in the beginning of the
lab period.
2.2 Laboratory Experiments
Depending on the requirement of the lab manual, students will have both
software and hardware experiments or hardware experiment only. All laboratory
experiments must be done during the lab period or unless otherwise specified.
For the software part of the experiment, students will use the CAD software
tools available in the lab. They will need to produce the schematic diagram
of the design and then make simulation to verify the design. A copy of
the software final design and its simulation results must be submitted
together with the lab report. More explanation and guidance on using the
software design tools is given in the Appendix.
The hardware experiments will require students to actually build the circuit
using TTL discrete components (ICs) and wire them up on a breadboard that
comes together with the experimenter kits that the students will use in
the lab. Students will then test the circuits to verify them. You must
refer to Appendix B to guide you on the Hardware Implementation of the
circuits. It is very important that students must demonstrate their circuits
to the lab demonstrator and obtain his/her approval that the circuits are
really functioning accordingly.
If students encountered any error in the outputs of their hardware design,
they will need to troubleshoot their circuits and make necessary changes
until a working circuit that produces the expected outputs is obtained.
If you have any problem with the design that you cannot solve, you must
get the lab demonstrator's help.
3.0 Course Projects
Either one or two course projects will be assigned to each group. the design
projects will be of control oriented real life design problems. It will
consist of both combinational and sequential part. Therefore the design
is complex enough for the students to partition the design into modules.
You will need to apply all the knowledge that you have learnt in digital
logic design for the projects. Students may have to implement their design
using programmable logics such as PLDs or assemble the TTL ICs and other
components (such as switches, LEDs etc.) together on a board.
The actual topics and specifications of the design will be handled to the
students by your lab demonstrator or course instructor. He or she will
also keep you informed on the following:-
*
the
guidelines to carry out the project.
*
the
project progress report and final report format.
*
the
project presentation.
*
the
overall due date.
4.0 Documentation and report Format
4.1 Log Book
Each student must have their own log book. All pre lab exercises or any
preliminary work prior to the lab experiment will be done in this book.
The lab demonstrator will check your log book in the beginning of all lab
periods.
4.2 Lab report
Each student will have to write a lab report after each lab experiment.
The lab report will have to be handled in to the instructor a week after
each respective lab. The format of this is as follows:-
*
Title page giving laboratory number, laboratory title, your name and partner(s)
name and experiment date.
*
Description
or specifications of the Circuit or of the Design.
*
Implementation
- i.e
- Truth table
- Simplified Boolean Expression
- State diagram or Algorithmic State Machine
- Additional information if required.
*
Hardware diagram
*
Components
requirements
- IC type - i.e. AND gates, NAND
gates.
- Number - i.e. 74LS08, 74LS00
- Quantity - i.e. 1,2,3 etc.
- Total number of ICs or chips.
(The
example of the hardware diagram and component requirements are shown in
the Appendix.)
- Software schematic diagram.
- Software simulation results.
-Conclusions
- Problems encountered in the process of design.
- Limitations.
- Brief description of new experiences.
4.3 Project Report
The format of the project report will be informed by the lab demonstrator
or course instructor.
5.0 Evaluation
The course evaluation will be based on the following.
* Log book
* Lab report
* Project report
* Laboratory performance
* Project presentation
* Final exam
The actual percentage distribution will be informed by the lab demonstrator/course
instruction.
6.0 General
Individual attendance is required for all laboratory sessions. It is important
to realize that the amount of work required to successfully complete a
laboratory course such as this is not proportionate to the amount of credit
awarded. These design lab courses are really what distinguishes the engineering
curriculum from others. This is where you develop the skills to become
a functioning design engineer. This cannot be accomplished without a significant
investment of time. The skills formed here such as record keeping, report
writing, reading of data sheets to determine the particulars of operation
of a device are the ones most likely to be used later in an engineering
position.