Course Catalogue

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This course introduces the basics of digital electronics and Hardware Description Languages, developing the skills necessary to design complex digital systems that are made up from a mix of subsystems including combinational systems, state machines, counters, registers.

This course will be timetabled in blocks, typically two weeks in four.

Mandatory Entry Requirements

None

Recommended Entry Requirements

None

None

None

75% Examination

15% Laboratory report

10% Practical Skills Assessment

Students must submit work for assessment for the course laboratory or a grade of credit withheld will be given.

Reassessment

In accordance with the University's Code of Assessment reassessments are normally set for all courses which do not contribute to the honours classifications. For non honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students, and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions are listed below in this box.

Due to the nature of the coursework and sequencing of courses, it is not possible to reassess the coursework laboratory.

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below.

Due to the nature of the coursework and sequencing of courses, it is not possible to reassess the coursework laboratory.

The initial grade on coursework laboratories will be used when calculating the resit grade.

Reassessment is offered only to meet the special requirement that all courses must be passed for graduation in this programme.

The aim of this course is to provide a broad grounding in digital electronic systems, leading from basic gates to design at MSI and LSI functional block level aided by a hardware description language.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Design, using manual methods, combinatorial logic functions and sequential logic circuits (e.g. counters and finite state machines) from simple Boolean gates.

■ Describe how more complex logic circuits (including multiplexers, decoders and counters) may be constructed from simpler logic modules.

■ Explain the principles of hierarchical design, design reuse, and design regularity, and demonstrate how these principles can be applied in practice using a hardware description language.

■ Design, using Hardware Description Language and programmable logic devices, key digital components such as: state machines, counters, multi-function registers.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment. In addition students must submit work for assessment for the course laboratory or a grade of credit withheld will be given.

Students must attend the timetabled laboratory classes.

Note that these are minimum requirements: good students will achieve far higher participation/submission rates. Any student who misses an assessment or a significant number of classes because of illness or other good cause should report this by completing a MyCampus absence report.