Martin Rice
COMBINATIONAL AND SEQUENTIAL LOGIC:
A Hands-on Approach Using Programmable Logic
Pearson Education Limited, 2001
Softcover pp. 284, plus X, $ 31,50
ISBN 0-582-43164-6

In general about the book

Programmable logic devices are types of integrated circuits that can be configured by the end user for a particular design implementation. During the last two decades PLD research has experienced tremendous growth in both academic and industrial organizations. As a result, chip programmability has now reached a high level of sophistication. There are many different PLD architectures, driven by different programming technologies. Today's PLDs provide cost-effective solutions for complex system design by means of simple homogeneous architectures. From hardware designer perspective, this book provides an introduction to programmable logic circuit, how they work, and how they are programmed. The book is divided into seven chapters, five appendices and an index. The book comes with CD-ROM that contains the XPLA software, some of the examples design files discussed in the book, and the Electronics Workbench simulator.

Chapter content

Chapter 1 is introductory. It firstly provides a standard coverage of the input-output characteristics of logic circuits, after that presents the important logic gates (NOT, AND, OR, etc.), and finally briefly discusses representation of binary, decimal and hexadecimal numbers. Chapter 2 contains basic topics in Boolean algebra required for understanding material presented in later chapters. Chapter 3 covers design principles related to minimization of resultant Boolean expression by means of a Karnaugh map or Quine-McCluskey tabular algorithm. Both sum-of- products and product-of-sums type expressions are covered. Electronic Workbench and XPLA software are used in order to shown how to carry out the design process automatically. Chapter 4 contains discussions on traditional combinational (multiplexers, demultiplexers, encoders and decoders) and arithmetic (adders, subtractors, comparators, multipliers) circuits. It provides details concerning "off-the-shelf" combinational logic implementation using PLDs. Simulation of combinational logic design using Electronic Workbench and XPLA software tools in order to verify correctness of logic designs has been presented. Chapter 5 provides a picture of how sequential circuits are designed using fundamental building blocks flip-flops. Distinction between synchronous and asynchronous operation of sequential circuits is given. Counters and shift- registers as a particular forms of sequential circuits are presented. Chapter 6 concentrates on finite state machines as a general-purpose synchronous systems that aids the design of large variety of circuits. Design of asynchronous finite state machines that do not have an external clock is also given. Chapter 7 provides a short coverage of PLD circuits used in the design of logic circuits described in this book. Architectures of 22V10 GAL as a representative of Simple PLD, Altera EPM 7128S and Xilinx 5032 as Complex PLDs, Xilinx XC 1003E as Field Programmable Gate Array device, are introduced. Five appendices are included to support the material in the text: Appendices A and B deal with circuit diagram and hardware construction, respectively, of the 5032 based demonstration printed circuit board. Appendix C describes software installation details. Appendix D concentrates on XPLA schematic editor, and Appendix E describes usage of the Xilinx Webpack CPLD development system.

Useful for junior level students and beginner-engineers

The organization of individual chapter is almost identical. It begins with short introduction, after that follows the central part where the main topics are discussed, and concludes with summary, assignment concerning synthesis of some representative circuits, and answers to questions and exercises for problems that we meet in the text of the corresponding chapter. The book includes a useful Index, but there is no Bibliography. This is an introductory book. Its primary intent is not to involve the readers in theoretical researches in the field of PLD design, but to give the explanation of concrete applications designed to stimulate an understanding of the material. In conclusion, this book is useful for junior level students, and beginner-engineers interested in the field of designing with programmable logic.