Computers & Digital Circuit Design
Summary
Computers & digital circuitry are now pervasive in society. Digital circuitry is circuitry that performs logic and/or computations. The following are some of the devices that contain digital or computer circuitry.
- Stand Alone Computers - Workstations, P.C.s & Apple Computers, tablet & pocket P.C.s, supercomputers, server farms such as Google maintains, etc.
- Embedded Computers - These are small computers embedded in other equipment. Examples include the computers & computer chips embedded in entertainment devices like televisions and IPods, the computers embedded in video games, DVR's such as TIVO which are essentially computers, computers in medical equipment such as MRI's and CAT scanners, computers in car engines and in airplane navigation equipment, computers in GPS devices, computers in factory equipment that control and monitor the equipment, computers in cell phones, etc.
- Most Other Electronic Devices - A digital television contains mostly digital circuitry. A CD or DVD player contains mostly digital circuitry. Most of the circuitry in factory equipment is digital. Most of the circuitry in a cell phone is digital, although crucial parts are analog. Almost everything relating to the internet is a combination of special purpose digital circuitry and computers. Home appliances are controlled by digital circuitry. Nearly everything electronic has a digital component.
Digital & Computer Research at the University of Arkansas
The following Electrical Engineering faculty are doing research in the digital and computer areas. Details on their research & their labs can be seen by clicking on their names.
- Pat Parkerson designs digital integrated circuit chips. He is a professor in the Computer Science Computer Engineering Department who is an adjunct professor in Electrical Engineering.
- Scott Smith is doing research on asynchronous logic, CAD tool development for asynchronous circuits, asynchronous FPGA design, VHDL, VLSI, computer architecture, embedded system design, evolvable hardware, secure/trustable hardware, & wireless sensor networks.
- Jingxian Wu does research in microprocessors and embedded systms, especially with applications in communications.
Courses for the Computers & Digital Circuit Design Specialty Area
Essential & Recommemded Undergraduate Elective Courses
Essential
CENG 3953 Logic Synthesis - VHDL
ELEG 4983 Introduction to Computer Architecture
Recommended
ELEG 4233 Introduction to Integrated Circuit Design
ELEG 4963 CPLD/FPGA Based System Design
CENG 3753 Data Communication Systems (Take after ELEG 3143)
Additional Graduate & Undergraduate Courses
ELEG 5173L Digital Signal Processing Laboratory
ELEG 5183L Digital Communications Laboratory
ELEG 5193L Advanced DSP Processors Laboratory
ELEG 5253L Integrated Circuit Design Laboratory I
ELEG 5263L Integrated Circuit Design Laboratory II
ELEG 5913 Parallel Programming
