ESE170: Principles of Digital Design

Spring 2011
Jan Van der Spiegel
201 Moore School
jan@seas.upenn.edu Examples where digital
circuits are used

EE Times, Berkeley Design Tech.

(AMD X4 Proc; photo: Sc. Am, Jan. 2010) (D. Rommel)

http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~ese170
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Digital circuits are everywhere -

… IC for systems meeting society’s needs Life Changers

Of these 30 innovations , 10
are directly related to
advances in Digital Logic and
Solid State Circuits;

Another 8 are the

indirect results of ICs.

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J. Van der Spiegel Chapter 1; Intro and 1.1 (Source: C.ESE170-1-4
Claeys, IMEC) J. Van der Spiegel Chapter 1; Intro and 1.1 ESE170-1-5
See artilcel at: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2163

Transformational effect ESE170: Principles of Digital Design

 Advances in ICs have transformed businesses, industries, and Deals with building blocks of
societies worldwide.
digital systems
 New opportunities for socio-economic advances and human
development have become feasible. ?
 Lives of people all over the world have improved through advances in (Intel)
health care
care, safety
safety, education
education, etc
etc.

 Wealth is being created in various parts of the world.

 With new technologies come also new responsibilities such as
privacy, IP protection, wealth distribution, …

 As engineers, we have to make choices; e.g. trade-offs between

cost and safety, …

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 What are Logic Gates built from? What is a Transistor?
Transistors:  Electronic, solid-state device that can amplify
 The transistor is the workhorse of every an electric signal:
electronic device. » Vout > Vin

out
» Powerout > Powerin

B
in
n
Transistor
[ESE216, transistor

S
(Source: IMEC)
ESE370]
Id
input
output
Mike

Digital building blocks

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PENN
More about it in ESE216/319,370.
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Digital Model of a Transistor Ten quintillion

 We make abstraction of the signals: 0 or 1  Ten quintillion: 10x1018
 As a result a transistors can be » Is about the number
grains of rice harvested
considered a switch (on or off; 1 or ;):
in 2004
» Number of transistors
fabricated in 2004

» In 2008: 1B transistors
fabricated/capita
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What is an IC? Intel Itanium 9300 Tukwila Processor

 An Integrated Circuit is a miniaturized
electronic circuits whose components
(transistors, resistors, capacitors) are
build on the surface of a semiconductor
wafer using the same planar fabrication
wafer,
technology.

(source: www.tgdaily.com)

Four cores
(Source: http://www.majelac.com/images/wafer_dicing.jpg) (Source: Wikipedia)
Over 2 billion transistors!
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 Chip complexity World of the Small
Circuit Level (ESE216/319)

5 layers of interconnections

Complexity of the USA

(AMD X4 Proc: 758 million transistors; photo: Sc. Am, Jan. 2010)

Submicron and nanoscale dimensions

Chip level (IBM Corp.)

(ESE460/570)
Logic Level (ESE170)
PENN Compare to a street map PENN
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Moore’s Law Embedded Systems

Chip complexity doubles every two years  Examples of Embedded Systems
Applications
» Cell phones
First 2-Billion
Trans. Processor
(Tukwila: Itanium
» Automobiles
processor);
P d ti Q1
Production
2010
Q1, » Video games
» Copiers
» Dishwashers
» Flat Panel TVs
» Global Positioning Systems
» Airplanes
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Abstraction and Dealing with

Complexity
 State of the art digital Operating Syst Device drivers
Level of abstraction for a digital systems:

systems are very CIS371

complex: Architecture Instructions Reg
How to Design such complex » E.g. Pentium contains 55
million transistors (or MicroArchit
ESE350
Datapaths, Control U

systems?
(ESE170)

over 10 million gates)!

» Designing this is very, L i
Logic Adders, Memory
very complex
Divide and Conquer  The only way to deal Digital Crts Gates (AND, OR)
with this complexity is to
Make Abstractions make abstraction: Analog Crts Amplifier, Filters
(ESE216/319/419)
hiding details that are
Reuse previous designs (IP) not important.
Devices Transistors
(ESE218)
Physics Electrons
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and Comp. and
Arch, 1.1
Elsevier 07) ESE170-1-26
 ESE170
 Introduction to modern logic
design and digital building blocks:
» Digital circuits, Logic design and
Back to ESE170 Micro-operations
 Focus on how to design and build
Digital Systems:
» From simple gates to more complex
building blocks. XC4000 XC4000 XC4000

 Learn modern tools to design

PENN digital
PENN circuits.
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Staying informed about latest

Beyond ESE170 development in EE, CE
 ESE170 is only one aspect of building
digital systems.
 What else?
» Using digital systems (microcontrollers) in
embedded
b dd d systems
t [ESE350]
» Programming [CIS110, 120]
» Computer Design [CIS371]
» Working with digital signals [DSP such as ESE530]
» Chip Design [ESE570, ESE572]

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Staying informed about latest development

in EE, CE

 Become a (student) member of a

professional society, e.g.
» ACM
» IEEE ((Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers):
– Student membership costs only $35
– Gives access to a wealth of information, e.g. a
monthly magazine called Spectrum
– Information about membership:
http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/join/index.html

PENN PENN (http://spectrum.ieee.org/)

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 IEEE Electronic Systems
 Consists of an analog part and a digital
part.
» Analog: amplifier at the input, filters, power
output amplifier signal transmission
» Digital: signal processing, filtering, display,
etc.
» Mixed analog-digital: A/D converters
ESE216 focus mainly on the analog part (more in ESE319, E

ESE170/171 deals with the digital part (more in ESE350, ESE

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35

Objectives of ESE170
 You will learn

» to apply the principles of Boolean Algebra to manipulate

and minimize logic expressions; [a1]
Course Outcomes » the operation of combinational circuits such as muxes,
coders and decoders, combinational adders, and
multipliers; [a3]
What you will know at the end of » the operation of latches, flip-flops, counters, registers, and
the semester register transfers; [a4]
» the operation of sequential circuits and design finite state
machines [a5]
» the concepts of data paths, control units and micro-
operations and building block of digital systems. [a6]

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Objectives (cont.) ESE170 Policies

 See Blackboard for more details.
» Designing digital circuits and systems [c]
 HWs: weekly (see ESE170 Syllabus)
» Learn the operation of state-of-the-art components » Posted on Blackboard each Monday
such as memories, PLA, PALs and programmable » Due on Mondays before START of class (no late
logic devices (such as FPGAs); [h] h
hws are accepted)
t d)
» Collaboration is allowed but not copying from each
» Become aware of how digital circuits are used in
real-world applications and its impact on society [j] other!
» Questions about grading of HWs or exams need to
be presented within one week after receiving the
graded assignment.
 Overall grade: 20% HW; 40% MTs; 40% final.
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 Textbook ESE171: Lab
 Logic and Computer Design Fundamentals, 4th edition, by Mano
and Kime, Prentice Hall, 2008. – available in the bookstore with
 First lab is on January 18th (Tue group)
Xilinx Software CD and January 21 for Friday group.
 Pre-lab deadlines:
» For online pre-labs (Blackboard):
– Tue group: Tue 3pm (available Sunday night)
– Fr. groups: Fr. 12pm (available Wed. night)
» For regular pre-labs: at the START of lab
 E-book is also available from CourseSmart
(http://www.coursesmart.com/givecoursesmartatry?xmlid=978013604185  Lab: Room 204 Moore (Ketterer lab).

6&__instructor=1194468)
 Student resources (including solutions to selected problems): Working in groups of 2
http://www.writphotec.com/mano4/ XC4000 XC4000 XC4000
 See also books on reserve in the Towne Library
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Further Reading
 How a chip is made: Intel Museum online:
http://www.intel.com/museum/onlineexhibits.htm
 Chip History Center:
http://www.intel.com/museum/onlineexhibits.htm
 Explore Engineering:
http://www.tryengineering.org/become.php?major Electrical Engi
http://www.tryengineering.org/become.php?major=Electrical+Engi
neering
 Sloan Career Center: Engineering
http://www.careercornerstone.org/engineering/engineering.htm
 Career Podcasts: http://www.careercornerstone.org/podcast.htm
 Future developments: The Next 20 Years of Microchips,”
Scientific American, pp. 82-89, January 2010.

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