Welcome to ES 4!
Quick links: Canvas — Campuswire — Gradescope — Textbook online — VHDLweb problems
This is the home page for Tufts ES 4, Introduction to Digital Logic.
Office hours
- Lucas Fridays 12-1pm
Schedule and links
General due dates, unless otherwise specified:
- Reading checks are due on the day of class at 11am, via Canvas.
- Homework/assessments are due on Tuesdays at 1:30pm (i.e., at class time), via Gradescope.
- Prelabs are due 24 hours before your lab section, via Gradescope.
- Lab writeups are due at the time of your lab section the following week, via Gradescope.
Week 1 (September 5)
Class begins in Robinson 253 (aka the lecture hall in the SEC). You don’t need to do anything before class, just show up!
Introduction (Tuesday 9/6)
Read learning guide
Sign up on Campuswire (see email invite)
Complete welcome survey (link posted on Campuswire)
Numbers in binary
Just for fun
Boolean equations, truth tables, and circuits (Thursday 9/8)
Read Harris 1.5 (Logic gates)
Read Harris 2.1-2.2 (Boolean equations)
Complete reading check 1
Week 2 (September 12)
Manipulating boolean equations (Tuesday 9/13)
Sign up on Gradescope (see email invite)
Read Harris 2.3-2.5
Complete reading check 2
Possibly helpful
Minimizing logic with Karnaugh maps (Thursday 9/15)
Harris 2.6-2.7
Complete reading check 3
Practice simplifying boolean equations (works best in Chrome)
Karnaugh map solver (Make up your own and practice!)
Possibly helpful
Lab
In-person labs begin this week in Halligan 223
Possibly helpful
Building a circuit on a breadboard from a schematic (This video shows a different circuit from an earlier iteration of the course, but walks through the process of drawing a schematic and building it on a breadboard.)
Week 3 (September 19)
Multiplexers and FPGAs (Tuesday 9/20)
Read Harris 2.8
Complete reading check 4
Just for fun
What is an FPGA? (EEVblog) A thorough overview of FPGAs, how they work inside, and comparison with a microcontroller.
Timing combinational logic (Thursday 9/22)
Read Harris 2.9
Complete reading check 5
Possibly helpful
Lab
MS Word report template (You don’t have to use this, it’s just for convenience.)
Assignments
Start Homework 1 (Solutions) (due 9/29 via Gradescope)
Week 4 (September 27)
VHDL for combinational logic (Tuesday 9/27)
Read Harris 4.1-4.2, 4.7.2
Complete reading check 6
Computer arithmetic (Thursday 9/29)
Read Harris 1.4 (Representing numbers in binary)
Complete reading check 7
Lab
Assignments
Start Homework 2 (due 10/6 via Gradescope)
Just for fun
Week 5 (October 4)
The course schedule below this point is from Fall 2021. It will be updated as the course progresses.
Testing and testbenches (Tuesday 10/4)
Read Harris 4.3, 4.9
Complete reading check 8
Structural modeling
Lab
There is no prelab or lab report this week; just follow the video tutorial and get the AND gate working.Assignments
Start Homework 3 (due 10/13 via VHDLweb)
Week 6 (October 11)
No class on Thursday; Indigenous People’s Day
Adders and other combinational circuits (Tuesday 10/13)
Read Harris 5.1-5.2
Complete reading check 9
Lab
No lab this week, use the time to practice VHDL and study for the midterm exam.
Possibly helpful
Just for fun
Week 7 (October 11)
Exam 1 (Tuesday 10/11)
Latches and flip-flops (Tuesday 10/13)
Read Harris 3.1-3.3
Complete reading check 10
Lab
Free-form VHDL simulation
Possibly helpful
From D-latch to D-flip-flop (Ben Eater) (This is a different way to build a D flip-flop than what the book describes, which might help you better understand what it does.)
Week 8 (October 25)
Describing sequential logic with VHDL (Thursday 10/25)
Read Harris 4.4-4.5, 5.4
Complete reading check 11
State machines (Tuesday 10/27)
Read Harris 3.4, 4.6
Complete reading check 12
Introduction to state machines (Intermation) Detailed explanation of what “state” is, with a walkthrough of the traffic light example from start to finish.
Homework
Start Homework 5 (due 11/3 via Gradescope and VHDLweb)
Lab
No new lab this week; complete lab 5 if you haven’t finished.
Just for fun
How does a PS/2 keyboard work? (Ben Eater) (Watch the first half to see a cool use of a shift register)
Week 9 (November 1)
Moore on state machines (Thursday 11/1)
No new reading!
Timing sequential logic (Tuesday 11/3)
Read Harris 3.5
Complete reading check 13
Lab
Optional lab stuff
Possibly useful
Just for fun
Week 10 (November 8)
Timing in real life, and some ethical dilemmas (11/8)
No new reading for today!
Ethics assignment (Due 11/22)
Lab
No new lab this week; complete lab 6 if you haven’t finished.
Week 11 (November 15)
Memory: registers, RAM, and ROM (11/10)
Read Harris 5.5
Complete reading check 14
Exam 2 (Tuesday 11/17)
Lab
Pick one of the following three labs to complete. You probably want to coordinate with your project team so you collectively cover them all.Week 12 (November 22)
Digital peripherals and protocols (11/22)
Read Harris 9.1-9.3.4.1
Complete reading check 15
Just for fun
No class on Tuesday, enjoy your Thanksgiving break!
Week 13 (November 29)
Doing stuff with VGA (11/29)
The ARM instruction set (12/1)
Read Harris 6.1-6.3.5
Complete reading check 16
Lab
Finish lab 7 if you haven’t yet; no report.
The lab will be open during regular lab hours for project work.
Week 14 (December 6)
From assembly to bits (12/6)
Read Harris 6.4
Complete reading check 17
How a microprocessor executes code (12/8)
Read Harris 7.1-7.3.4
Exam 2 makeup
Projects
Work on final projects
Week 15 (December 13)
Final project demos
Final project demo day, December 13 11:30am-1:30pm
Final project writeups due, December 23 6pm