Digital Electronics

Digital Electronics, in this context, refers to the study of the basic building blocks of digital logic. The digital chips that we use on a daily basis, from the simple 8 bit AVR to the latest quad core monster have one thing in common. They all use logic gates as the basic building blocks that define their digital logic.

If you want to be successful in defining digital logic then it is important to have some understanding of the basic building blocks. Digital Electronics refers to AND, OR, and NOT gates and all of the digital logic structures that can be derived from them. Its not crucial to have a deep understanding but it is important to know what all the basic gates are and what can be derived from them. Examples of structures that can be derived are:

  • D Flip Flops - Data flip flops are used to store data and are also known as registers.
  • Counters - Used to count up and down to divide a clock or keep track of time.
  • Shift registers - Can shift data from a serial stream into a parallel form such as a byte.

7400 series logic chips are probably the most familiar example of digital logic. FPGA's can easily implement, on the fly, any functionality contained in 7400 series logic chips.

Resources for Digital Electronics

It's good to take a look at some of these resources to get a better understanding of what Digital Electronics encompasses.

Fundamentals of Digital ElectronicsAs far as we can tell this is a free textbook. If anyone knows anything about the copyright status of this book please let us know.
College course materialCollege course material from Eric Crabill at Xilinx. This is excellent information that covers Digital Electronics and FPGA's.

Please forward any other links you might have to us.

  

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