Lab 7
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Lab 7: Designing Logic Circuits

By the end of this lab, you will be able to:

• Use a simple computer tool for circuit design
• Build an equality tester with basic logic gates
• Build a selector with basic logic gates

When engineers design Boolean logic circuits, they use computer tools. Two of the major tools allow a designer to specify circuits efficiently and to simulate circuits. Just as you might use a text processor to write and format a term paper and a spell checker to check that you typed things correctly, the circuit designer uses a specialize graphics editor to draw circuits and a simulator to show the value the circuit would produce for any set of inputs specified by the designer. Often the graphics entry system and simulator are integrated in one circuit design tool; this is the kind of tool you will be using in this lab.

The tool you will use is a ``home grown'' system (written in Java). Commercial tools are much more complex, but you will get a sense of what such tools can do for you. You will also get to build some circuits that are important building blocks for digital computers.

Page 1: Introduction (this page)
Page 2: Simulation and Basic Logic Gates
Page 3: Designing Basic Circuits
Page 4: More Practice in Circuit Design
Page 5: Advanced Circuits -- the assignment
Page 6: Finishing up and Shutting down