Digital Electronics

Crystals and Ceramic Resonators For the best clock accuracy, a quartz crystal should be used in an oscillator circuit like the one shown in Fig. 8-13. A quartz crystal is a piezoelectric device that provides a constant delay between one side of the piece of quartz within the part to the other. The term piezoelectric […]
Continue reading…

Oscillators In the introduction to the previous chapter of this book, I presented you with a simple block diagram of a ‘‘complete’’ digital electronic device: the digital clock. This device has all three of the necessary components for a functional, ‘‘stand alone’’ device: combinatorial logic for converting binary data as required; a memory function which […]
Continue reading…

Test for Part One Do not refer to the text when taking this test. You may draw diagrams or use a calculator if necessary. A good score is at least 38 correct answers. Answers are in the back of the book. It’s best to have a friend check your score the first time so you […]
Continue reading…

Feedback and Sequential Circuits This chapter’s title probably seems like a bit of a misnomer; you are probably wondering what feedback has to do with digital electronics? When I use the term ‘‘feedback’’, I am using it in the most literal sense, past state data are used to maintain current state data. These circuits built […]
Continue reading…

Latches Versus Registers Two terms that are often used interchangeably are ‘‘register’’ and ‘‘latch’’. In the previous section, I introduced you to the ‘‘register’’, which is another term for an edge triggered flip flop. When you look at parts lists and datasheets, you will see parts that are identified as ‘‘registers’’ and others as ‘‘latches’’ […]
Continue reading…

Quick and Dirty Logic Gates One of the most frustrating aspects of designing digital electronic circuits is that when you are almost finished, you often discover that you are a gate or two short and you are left with the question of whether or not you should add another chip to the circuit. The major […]
Continue reading…

Practical Combinatorial Circuit Implementation When you are designing your first application that is built from digital electronics, you will probably feel like you have just joined a never-ending role-playing game in which all the other players know more than you do. Later in the book, I will present some ideas on how to read a […]
Continue reading…

Binary Arithmetic Using Digital Electronics Before going into showing how basic binary arithmetic operations are performed in digital electronic circuits, I thought it would be useful to review how you would perform basic arithmetic operations. Before discussing how many binary arithmetic operations there are, some different characteristics of binary numbers should be discussed. I realize […]
Continue reading…

Binary Coded Decimal In the early days of programming, data structures were often the result of a curious blend of trying to come up with a data format that best suited the programmer and what best suited the current hardware. One of the more Table 4-5 Decimal digits with binary and BCD decimal equivalents. Decimal […]
Continue reading…

Number Systems Working through the book to this point, you should be comfortable with combining multiple single bit values together in a variety of different ways to perform different combinatorial circuit functions. Along with being able to meet the basic requirements, you should be able to optimize the circuit to the fewest number of gates […]
Continue reading…