GENERAL INFORMATION


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.