Physics 234: Digital Electronics

Fall 2011

Jed Brody (N308, 7-5580, jbrody@emory.edu)

Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.

—Mr. Spock

This course emphasizes hands-on experimentation with digital circuits. The objective is to become proficient in both the theory and practice of digital electronics.

The first part of the course introduces the basic building blocks of digital circuits: logic gates, flip-flops, and counters. The second part of the course introduces the microprocessor, arguably the most important device in the modern world. (Without the microprocessor, there would be no computers and therefore no internet, no modern medical instruments, no modern telecommunications, etc.) We will learn how to write programs in machine language (example: 86 21 8B 17 3E) and to interface the microprocessor with input and output devices.

Grades will be determined as follows:

Test (9/15): Combinational Logic	20%
Practice Test Solutions
2008 Test Solutions
2009 Test Solutions 2010 Test Solutions
Digital-logic project (due 10/13):	20%
Test (11/22): Microprocessor Programming	30%
You may refer to your own copy of the 6800 Instruction Set (also found in the newer versions of the manuals) during the test, which is otherwise closed-book. Practice Test Solutions 2008 Test Solutions
2009 Test Solutions 2010 Test Solutions
Microprocessor project (due 12/13):	30%

Date	Topic	Activity
25-Aug	Diodes	Digital experiment 3
30-Aug	Transistors	Digital experiments 1, 4
1-Sep	Logic gates	Digital experiment 2
6-Sep	Boolean algebra	Digital experiment 5
8-Sep	Minimum configurations	Digital experiment 7
13-Sep	Wired-AND	Digital experiment 8
15-Sep		Test: Combinational Logic
20-Sep	SR and D latches	Digital experiments 9, 10
22-Sep	JK flip-flops	Digital experiment 11
27-Sep	Counters	Digital experiment 12
29-Sep	Counter applications	Digital experiments 13, 14
4-Oct	Decoders and displays	Digital experiments 18, 19
6-Oct	Memory	Digital experiment 23
13-Oct	Programming	Programming experiment 3
18-Oct	Branching	Programming experiment 5
20-Oct	Condition codes	Programming experiment 6
25-Oct	Addressing modes	Programming experiment 7
27-Oct	Subroutines	Programming experiment 10
1-Nov	Interrupts	Interfacing experiment 2
3-Nov	Memory interfacing	Interfacing experiment 1
8-Nov	Address decoding	Interfacing experiment 3
10-Nov	Data output	Interfacing experiment 4
15-Nov	Data input	Interfacing experiment 5
17-Nov	PIA	Interfacing experiment 6
22-Nov		Test: Microprocessor Programming
29-Nov	Audio output	Interfacing experiment 7
1-Dec	Parallel-to-serial conversion	Interfacing experiment 8
6-Dec	DAC and ADC	Interfacing experiment 9

All experiments are from Heathkit manuals, which should be available in the bookstore. The digital experiments are from the Digital Techniques Workbook (EB-6201-41, ISBN 0-87119-225-5), the programming experiments are from the Microprocessors Textbook (EB-6401A, ISBN 0-87119-105-9), and the interfacing experiments are from the Microprocessors Workbook (EB-6401-41, ISBN 0-87119-106-7).