Digital Design & Computer Arch. Lecture 2b: Combinational Logic 1

A Note on Hardware vs. Software

• This course might seem like it is only "Computer Hardware"
• However, you will be much more capable if yout master both hardware and software (and the interface between them)
  -- Can develop better software if you understand the hardware
  -- Can design better hardware if you understand the software
  -- Can design a better computing system if you understand both
• This course covers the HW/SW interface and microarchitecture
  -- We will focus on tradeoffs and how they affect software
• Recall the example chips & platforms we surveyed

What is A Computer?

• Three key components
• Computation
• Communication
• Storage/memory

Computing System
Computing Unit
<-> Communication Unit
<-> Memory/Stoage Unit(Memory System, Storage System)

• We will cover all three components
  |Processing | |Memory |
  |control(sequencing) | <-> |(program and data)| <-> I/O
  |datapath | | |

What We Will Cover (1)

• Combinational Logic Design
• Hardware Description Languages (Verilog)
• Sequential Logic Design
• Timing and Verification
• ISA (MIPS and LC3b as examples)
• Assembly Programming

Problem
Algorithm
Program/Language

System Software

SW/HW Interface