Why do digital systems matter?

Theyre taking over!

o The ratio of digital systems to analog systems is increasing, where analog
circuitry is often just used to convert I/O to the digital domain
o The number of devices that contain digital systems is constantly increasing
With the increasing popularity of portable devices, consumer electronics are
exploding.

Digital Systems are EVERYWHERE!!

Prescott Pentium 4

122 mm2 with 125 million transistors

Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2 processor (Montecito)

27.72 mm x 21.5 mm with 1.72 billion transistors,

PlayStation 3

Cell Processor (ISSCC05)

Cellular Applications:
Outer-Space - Mars Rover
On the road - Automotive Electronics
Predicting the weather - Meteorological Applications
Inside you - Biomedical Applications (Diagnostic and Medical Applications)

Digital systems come in many forms and are essential in most of todays consumer
and industrial products. The control of many devices, including toys, mobile
telephones, cars, aircraft and medical equipment, is by a programmable digital
system. Digital systems are purpose built programmable data processing systems
with a mix of size and complexity which can be used to perform a vast number and
range of functions.

Digital logic is the foundation for digital computers. If you want to understand
the innards of computers you need to know digital logic.
Digital logic has relations to other kinds of logic including:
o Formal logic - as taught by many philosophy departments
o Fuzzy logic - a tool used to design control systems and many other
systems.
o So, in learning digital logic you learn something that helps you
elsewhere.
For many students, learning digital logic is fun.

What Are You Going to Learn?

There are at least two general areas you need to become familiar with.

First, there's background you need to know - the basics of digital logic - things
like zeros and ones (0s and 1s) and how you can represent signals as
sequences of zeroes and ones. Eventually you will want to know how large
arrays of zeroes and ones can be used in computer files to store information
in pictures, documents, sounds and even movies and you'll want to learn
about how information can be transmitted, between computers and digital
signal sources.
You will also need to know things about digital circuits - gates, flip-flops and
memory elements and others - so that you can eventually design circuits to
manipulate digital signals.