EE 2174 Lab 2

Designing Digital Circuits Part I

1 Objective
For a few weeks now in the lecture class we have been learning about digital circuits, drawing circuits on paper, and filling out truth tables. However, digital logic doesnt just exist on paper; these circuits exist in real life. In this lab, we will leverage all of the skills you have been developing in the lecture and lab course so far. We will build some digital circuits using AND, OR, and NOT chips as well as building NAND equivalent circuits. Youll utilize the skills youve developed with the power supplies and oscilloscopes to energize and measure your circuits. Finally, as always, well write up our results.

2 Concepts
The key concept we want to examine in this lab is that of functional equivalence. As discussed in class, functional equivalence is the condition where two logic functions that have different terms will yield the same output for all possible combinations of inputs. We are generally interested in functionally equivalent circuits because they may be cheaper for a variety of definitions of cheaper. It may require fewer gates, may take less physical space, may require fewer transistors or may have a more desirable physical layout. Whatever the case, functional equivalence is a major focus of digital design. First, how do we prove functional equivalence? There are software packages that will do it for you. These are referred to as Boolean Equivalency Checkers and are used frequently during the design process to verify that the various tools in the chain (the synthesis tool, the physical planning tool) dont change the underlying logic. The simplest way to do it by hand is to fill out a truth table. By definition, the truth table lists all the outputs for all combinations of inputs. Therefore, if you correctly fill out the table for both functions and they have the same output, then the two functions are functionally equivalent. You can also perform algebraic manipulation to try to transform one of the logic functions into the other. This is fairly tedious and error-prone, so we tend not to do this.

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3 Equipment and Components

This experiment will require the use of your component and tool kit, the Agilent oscilloscope, Agilent power supply, some resistors and a variety of AND, OR, NOT and NAND DIP chips from lab stock.

4 Part 1: Simple Digital Circuit

1. Shown below in Figure 1 is a simple logic function. Using the data sheets available on the course website, select the appropriate and, or and not gates to build the circuit on your breadboard.

Figure 1: The First Circuit to Build Get your TAs initials on the data sheet before you turn on the power to your circuit. 2. Now that youve wired your gates together, you need to test the circuit. We need to test all eight combinations of inputs to this 3-input circuit, starting with the X = Y = Z = 0 combination. Connect a wire from the ground bar on your breadboard to each of the X, Y and Z inputs on your 7408 and chips. Then, use an oscilloscope or multimeter to determine the output voltage from the 7432 or chip. Record the output on your data sheet. 3. Continue testing the circuit for the other seven input combinations, recording your observations on the data sheet.

Part 2: NAND-based Circuits

4. We have discussed building functionally equivalent NAND circuits in lecture, as they are often cheaper. In this case, we can even reduce the circuit from three DIP chips

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to a single 7400 NAND chip. On the data sheet, draw a version of the circuit from Figure 1 that consists of only NAND gates. 5. Now replace the circuit from Part 1 with your circuit as drawn on the data sheet. Get your TAs initials before you energize the circuit. 6. Now test the circuit in the same way you tested the circuit in Part 1. Record all the output values on your data sheet.

Part 3: Proving Functional Equivalence

7. In the Pre-Lab, you designed three functionally equivalent circuits. We used nothing but 2-input gates because our chips only have 2-input gates. For each of your three circuits, lay them out on the breadboard and test them to verify that they are indeed functionally equivalent.

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EE2174 -PreLab 2
Name:____________________________________________Section:________ 1 (5pts) Given the function f(W, X, Y, Z)=!m(1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), derive three different functionally equivalent expressions of this function. These functions do not need to be minimal; only functionally equivalent. Show the truth tables for all three functions. 2 (5pts) Draw logic diagrams for your circuits in the previous question. You may only use 2-input AND and OR gates.

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Data Sheet
Name:_________________________________________ Section:___________ 1. TA initials for Step 1: _________ 2. TA initials for Step 5: _________ 3. Output from testing Circuit 1 in Step 3:

4. Output from testing Circuit 2 in Step 6: 4. Output from testing Circuit 2 in Step 6:

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