DDCA_Ch5

Digital Building Blocks

Digital Building Blocks

Fundamental components such as gates, multiplexers, and flip-flops used in digital design.

Hierarchy

Organization of components in a system where larger systems are built from simpler components.

Modularity

Design principle that divides a system into smaller parts or modules.

Regularity

Pattern where similar structure can be easily scaled up or down.

Half Adder

A digital circuit that adds two single binary digits and outputs a sum and carry.

Full Adder

A digital circuit that adds three binary digits (two inputs and a carry) and outputs a sum and carry.

Carry Propagate Adder (CPA)

An adder that propagates carry bits through a chain of adders.

Ripple-Carry Adder

A type of CPA where carry bits ripple through the chain, leading to slower performance.

Carry-Lookahead Adder

A faster adder by calculating carries in advance based on input bits.

Prefix Adder

An advanced type of adder that computes carries in parallel using prefixes.

Carry-In (Cin)

An input carry value fed into an adder from a previous stage.

Carry-Out (Cout)

The output carry value produced by an adder.

Generate signal (Gi)

A signal that indicates if a carry will be produced in a given column.

Propagate signal (Pi)

A signal that indicates if a carry input will be propagated to the carry output.

Memory Array

A structured collection of memory cells organized by address for data storage.

Dynamic RAM (DRAM)

A type of volatile memory that uses capacitors to store bits.

Static RAM (SRAM)

A type of volatile memory that uses flip-flops to store bits.

Read-Only Memory (ROM)

Non-volatile memory that is permanently programmed and cannot be written to.

Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

A digital circuit used to perform arithmetic and logical operations.

Multiplexer (MUX)

A device that selects one of several input signals and forwards it to a single output line.

Demultiplexer (DEMUX)

A device that takes a single input signal and activates one of many outputs.

Combinational Logic

Logic circuit whose output depends only on the present inputs.

Sequential Logic

Logic circuit whose output depends on the current inputs and the past state.

Shifter

A circuit that shifts the input binary values left or right.

Logical Shifter

Shifts bits while filling with zeros.

Arithmetic Shifter

Shifts bits while preserving the sign bit by filling with the old most significant bit.

Floating-Point Representation

A method of representing real numbers that supports a wide range of values.

IEEE 754

A standard for floating-point arithmetic in computing.

Normalized Form

A binary floating-point number is in normalized form when its leading digit is 1.

Sign Bit

The bit in a floating-point number that indicates whether the number is positive or negative.

Exponent Field

Part of a floating-point representation that indicates the magnitude of the number.

Mantissa (or significand)

The part of a floating-point number that contains its significant digits.

Two’s Complement

A binary representation for signed integers that simplifies arithmetic operations.

Fixed-point Representation

A type of number representation using a fixed number of digits before and after the binary point.

Program Counter

A register in a computer that contains the address of the next instruction to be executed.

Counter

A sequential circuit that counts pulses or events.

Shift Register

A register capable of shifting its stored data left or right.

Dynamic Memory Refresh

Process of recharging memory cells in DRAM to maintain data integrity.

Flash Memory

A non-volatile memory that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed.

Lookup Table (LUT)

A data structure used to replace computation with a simple array index to speed up computations.

Programmable Logic Array (PLA)

A programmable device that implements combinational logic.

Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)

An integrated circuit designed to be configured by the user via a hardware description language.

Configuration

The process of setting up a digital device or memory for a particular application.

Data Array

An arrangement of data storage cells in a grid or matrix format.

Bit Cell

The smallest addressable unit of memory that stores a single bit.