digital design and computer architecture 大纲

C1：

This chapter has introduced principles for understanding and designing

complex systems. Although the real world is analog, digital designers dis

cipline themselves to use a discrete subset of possible signals. In particu

lar, binary variables have just two states: 0 and 1, also called FALSE

and TRUE or LOW and HIGH. Logic gates compute a binary output

from one or more binary inputs. Some of the common logic gates are:

▶

NOT: TRUE when input is FALSE

▶

AND: TRUE when all inputs are TRUE

▶

OR:

TRUE when any inputs are TRUE

▶

XOR: TRUE when an odd number of inputs are TRUE

Logic gates are commonly built from CMOS transistors, which

behave as electrically controlled switches. nMOS transistors turn ON

（CMOS的半导体器件特性）

when the gate is 1. pMOS transistors turn ON when the gate is 0

C2：

addresses combinational logic, in which the outputs depend only on the

current inputs. The logic gates introduced already are examples of combina

tional logic. You will learn to design circuits involving multiple gates to

implement a relationship between inputs and outputs specified by a truth

table or Boolean equation

（组合逻辑电路）

C3：

addresses sequential logic, in which

the outputs depend on both current and past inputs. Registers are com

mon sequential elements that remember their previous input. Finite state

machines, built from registers and combinational logic, are a powerful

way to build complicated systems in a systematic fashion. We also study

timing of digital systems to analyze how fast a system can operate.

（时序电路、寄存器的运用）

C4:

describes hardware description languages (HDLs). HDLs are related

to conventional programming languages but are used to simulate and

build hardware rather than software. Most digital systems today are

designed with HDLs. SystemVerilog and VHDL are the two prevalent lan

guages, and they are covered side-by-side in this book.

（硬件描述语言和Verilog的使用）

C5:

studies

other combinational and sequential building blocks such as adders, multi

pliers, and memories.

（其他时序器件）

C6:

shifts to computer architecture. It describes the MIPS pro

cessor, an industry-standard microprocessor used in consumer electronics,

some Silicon Graphics workstations, and many communications systems

such as televisions, networking hardware, and wireless links. The MIPS

architecture is defined by its registers and assembly language instruction

set. You will learn to write programs in assembly language for the MIPS

processor so that you can communicate with the processor in its native

language.

C7&C8:

investigates microarchitecture, the arrangement of

digital building blocks, such as adders and registers, needed to construct a

processor. In that chapter, you learn to build your own MIPS processor.

Indeed, you learn three microarchitectures illustrating different trade-offs

of performance and cost. Processor performance has increased exponen

tially, requiring ever more sophisticated memory systems to feed the insa

tiable demand for data

delves into memory system architecture

and also describes how computers communicate with peripheral devices

such as keyboards and printers.