Lecture Meeting Schedule

Course Information

Course objectives:  Digital systems are pervasive in modern life – devices from the wristwatches we wear, the medical imagers which probe our health, to the aircraft we "fly-by-wire," all rely on embedded digital systems. Digital computers are perhaps the most prominent digital systems, but by no means the only, devices we depend on today which are themselves, or incorporate, digital systems. In this course we will explore the nature of digital systems and their components, both from the perspective of  the mathematics and logic which illuminate the process of designing a digital system to achieve a desired input-output behavior, and from the implementation perspective using practical current hardware technologies. 

After this course is completed, you should be able to: convert numbers from one postional number system to another, prove theorems of Boolean algebra, design a binary adder using a Karnaugh Map, design a multiplexer using prime implicants, explain the difference between combinational and sequential circuits, use latches and flip-flops to design memories and general purpose registers, use state tables to design  sequence recognizers and other clocked sequential circuits.

Syllabus:
                                1. Introduction (2/3 wk)
                                2. Positional number systems (1 2/3 wk)

                                3. Digital codes (2/3 wk)                          
                                3. Boolean algebra (1 wk)
                                4. Canonical forms (1 wk)
                                5. Canonical simplifications (2 wk)
                                6. Combinational circuits (1 wk)

                                7. Latches and flip-flops (1 1/3 wk)
                                7. Sequential circuits (1 2/3 wk)
                        

Registration: registration into any one of the five recitations (T 3:00pm, W 8:00am and 3:00pm, R 9:00am, F 3:00pm) includes registration in the lecture (MWF 10:00am). Availabilities and further information can be found on the MyUB Spring 2011 CSE241 Academic Schedule Webpage.

Prerequisites:  CSE191 or permission of the instructor.

Lecture: MWF 10:00am-10:50am 109 Knox Hall. Attendance at lecture is not required but is strongly recommended, as the course concepts on which homework and exams depend will be introduced in the textbook and explained in lecture. The course director Peter Scott will give most of the lectures.

Course director:  Peter Scott,  Associate Professor Dept. Computer Science and Engineering, Rm. 136 Bell Hall, 645-3180 x 137, peter@cse.buffalo.edu. Office hours TWR 2:00-3:00PM, 136 Bell Hall.

Recitation: As with lecture, attendance is not required. But each recitation week will include both discussion of the previous week's homework solutions or exam solution set, and hints on the current homework set. Note: no recitation first week of classes. Recitations begin Tuesday Jan 25.

TAs: Jaehan Koh, Ph.D. student Dept. CSE, office hour 2:00-3:00pm Wednesdays, 329 Bell Hall (TA Room). Hui Li, Ph.D. student Dept. CSE, office hour 1:00-2:00pm Mondays, 329 Bell Hall (TA Room).

Required textbook: Donald D. Givone, “Digital Principles and Design,” McGraw Hill, New York, 2003. ISBN:   0-07-252503-7.

Required work: Two hourly exams, final exam, ten problem sets.

Grading:  Semester grade will be computed by converting the equally 1/3-weighted average of three components: hourly exam average, problem set average, final exam grade to a letter grade. Standard QPA equivalents of letter grades will be used. So for instance if a student got A- and B on the two hourlies, that is a hourly exam average of 3.167. If he/she also got an A on the final exam and a homework average of 2.667, the semester average is (3.167+4.000+2.667)/3=3.278. Since this is closest to a B+ (3.333), the semester grade for this student would be reported as a B+.

Listserv newsgroup: sunyab.cse.241.

Academic integrity:  The value of our courses, grades, degrees and research findings are dependent upon adherence to standards of ethical conduct.  Plagiarism and inappropriate collaboration will not be tolerated. In this course we will adhere to the CSE departmental standard for academic integrity. We quote here this standard as it applies to coding assignments and projects:

          "The following statement further describes the specific application of these general principles to a common context in the CSE Department environment, the production of source code for project and homework assignments. It  should be thoroughly understood before undertaking any cooperative activities or using any other sources in such contexts.

              All academic work must be your own. Plagiarism, defined as  copying or receiving materials from a source or sources and submitting this material as one's own without acknowledging the particular debts to the source (quotations,     paraphrases, basic ideas), or otherwise representing the work of another as one's own, is never allowed. Collaboration,   usually evidenced by unjustifiable similarity, is never permitted in individual assignments. Any submitted academic work may be subject to screening by software programs designed to detect evidence of plagiarism or collaboration.

              It is your responsibility to maintain the security of your computer accounts and your written work. Do not share passwords with anyone, nor write your password down where it may be seen by others. Do not change permissions to allow others to read your course directories and files. Do not walk away from a workstation without logging out. These are your responsibilities. In groups that collaborate inappropriately, it may be impossible to determine who has offered work to others in the group, who has received work, and who may have inadvertently made their work available to the others by failure to maintain adequate personal security In such cases, all will be held equally liable. "

Additional information on University-wide policies and procedures is contained in the  UB Academic Grievance Policy , and the UB Academic Integrity webpage .