Digital Logic Tutorial and Design

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 Digital Logic Lab
(A mini-lab experience)
• We are going to build both a combination lock and a
flashing railroad crossing signal using digital logic devices
• To build these circuits we will draw upon knowledge or
resources developed by several areas of electrical
engineering
• First, we will need to learn a little about digital logic

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 Some Definitions
• Definition: Discrete System - a system with a finite
number of sizes or measures
– Shoes, Dresses, Pants, Bolts, Pencils
• Definition: Digital System - a Discrete System with only
two values of system variables: 1 and 0
– True/False; Yes/No; Male/Female; On/Off

• Let’s compare digital and continuous (analog) systems

– Digital signals are binary; analog signals are real-valued numbers
– Digital is less susceptible to noise

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 5 Analog Waveform

Voltage (V)

Time
0

Digital Waveform
5
1 1
Voltage (V)

0 Time
0
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 AND Operator
• Let’s look at the relationship between the semantic and
logical operator known as the AND operator
• Consider:
If the car is fueled AND the engine works,
then the engine will start
AND Operator
Truth Table
• AND means that both conditions
A B Output
must be true in order for the
0 0 0
conclusion to be true
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 1
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 Digital AND
• We can build an electrical device that performs the logical AND operation on voltage equivalents of
logic values

• An AND gate has the

electrical schematic:

A For digital logic:

Output
Inputs
True = 1 is 5 volts
B False = 0 is 0 volts
Practice with the Excel spreadsheet
•

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 OR Operator
• Another basic operator is the OR

• Consider:
If I have cash OR a credit card,
then I can pay the bill OR Operator
Truth Table
• OR works such that the output is true,
if either of the two inputs is true A B Output
0 0 0
0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 1
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 NOT Operator/Inverter Gate
• The NOT gate reverses the input

A B
NOT Operator
Truth Table
• All digital computers are A B
built using only three gate 0 1
types: AND, OR, and NOT 1 0

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 XOR (Exclusive OR) Operator
• Let’s look at the relationship between the semantic and
logical operator known as the XOR operator
• Consider a biological example:
If gender A XOR gender B,
then reproduction is possible

• XOR works such that output is activated (equal to one) if

both inputs are of a different value
• Try the Excel spreadsheet exercise

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 Digital XOR
• We can build an electrical device that performs the logical XOR operation on voltage equivalents of logic
values

• An XOR gate has the

electrical schematic:

XOR Operator
Truth Table
A A B Output
Output
Inputs 0 0 0
B 0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 0

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Digital Combination Lock

Design and Software Simulation

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 Multi-Input AND Gate
• AND gates can be built with any number of inputs
• Consider the symbol for the 4-input AND gate

A
B F
C
D

• F is true only when all the inputs are true (1’s)

• Using the Excel workbook “EE-WISE-DigitalLab”, open
the “Digital Locks” worksheet, and test this circuit

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 Digital Combination Lock
• Using 3 two-input AND gates, we could build a combination
lock that requires a four-digit code, specifically: 1 1 1 1
1
AND 1

1 1
AND
1
AND 1

• The number of inputs could be increased by using more and

more AND gates

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 Digital Combination Lock
• We could build a combination lock that only uses the AND
gate, but that would be of little use since everyone would
know our combination, namely 1 1 1 1

• To build a more interesting combination lock, we will

utilize the NOT (inverter) gate

0 1

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 Digital Combination Lock
• Let’s build a combination lock whose input (key code)
combination is 0 1 1 0

0 1
AND 1

1 1
AND
1
AND 1
0 1

• Is there any other combination that works?

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 “Picking” a Digital Lock
• Use the truth table below to record the lock outputs for the different lock combinations
in the “Pick the Locks” worksheet

Input
Combination Lock Output
A B C D Lock #1 Lock #2 Lock #3 Lock #4 Lock #5
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 1
0 0 1 0
0 0 1 1
0 1 0 0
0 1 0 1
0 1 1 0
0 1 1 1
1 0 0 0
1 0 0 1
1 0 1 0
1 0 1 1
1 1 0 0
1 1 0 1
1 1 1 0
1 1 1 1

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Digital Railroad Crossing Signal

Design and Software Simulation

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 Digital Railroad Crossing Signal

• Now, let’s develop a digital circuit whose output changes

over time
• We are all familiar with a railroad crossing signal that
alternates flashing red lights
• In addition to constructing the digital combination lock,
we will build the railroad crossing signal in the lab, so let’s
begin by designing the circuit

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 Railroad Crossing Signal Design

• Here we will need some type of timing signal that will tell
the lights when to turn on and off
• The problem is that we seemingly need two timing signals
since one light is on while the other is off, and vice versa
• A digital logic implementation can allow us to save cost by
using only a single timing signal
• The design effort is then one of considering which gate(s)
need to be used to achieve the alternating signal patterns

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 Railroad Crossing Signal
Turn-on voltage puts 1 AND 0 outputs 0
out a constant +5 volts 1 AND 1 outputs 1
0/1
AND
1

Square wave is
being repeatedly
turned on then off
0/1 XOR
1/0
1 XOR 0 outputs 1
1 XOR 1 outputs 0

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 Railroad Crossing Signal Simulation

• The “Railroad Xing Simulation” worksheet may be used

in Excel to view (over time) the activation of the RR
crossing lights
• Note that this Excel simulation uses some advanced
features of Excel such as iteration and conditional
formatting to achieve the software simulation

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