EET130 Paper - Computers PDF

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Computers...

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Logic Gates

EET130 Digital Systems

Instructor: I. M. Sarwar

Student: Stephen Lawrence

ECPI Honor Pledge: I pledge to support the Honor System of ECPI. I will refrain from any form of academic dishonesty or deception, such as cheating or plagiarism. I am aware that as a member of the academic community it is my responsibility to turn in all suspected violators of the honor code. I understand that any failure on my part to support the Honor System will be turned over to a Judicial Review Board for determination. I will report to a Judicial Review Board hearing if summoned.

May 16, 2017

Narrative I am writing this research paper on logic gates. I have quite a good bit of history with these small, multifunctional components. When I joined the NAVY and after I completed boot camp, the path I chose was for FireControlman. This is not a sprinkler installer or one who controls fires in any way but more of a defense radar technician. My first school was Technical Core school or Tech Core, for short. This school starts off with DC, AC, then digital, flip-flops, and finally, solid state devices. I breezed right through DC and AC, without actually understanding everything that I was taught. When I finally got to the digital module, I didn’t understand a word of it. We were learning about different gates and the signals going through them. My teacher asked me simple questions about voltage and current and I couldn’t explain it. He recommended me for tutorage after hours. When I got there, he had a water hose, some marbles and a cup of water on the table. He held up the clear hose in a loop in front of him and asked me what it represented. I simply stated that I didn’t know. He said it’s a clear hose or, better yet, a wire. He put several of the marbles into the hose and let them settle to the bottom of the loop. He stated that the marbles represented voltage sitting on that wire. They were not going to go anywhere but just sit there. He then poured some water through the hose. This water represented current “pushing” the marbles (voltage) across that wire. It took me a second to process it but what I had stumbled around for so long had just become so easy to understand. He gave me a few sample questions but the tutor session took about 20 or 30 minutes and I left. This story has little to do with logic gates but it was during that module time that things started to “click” inside my head and I had a newfound yearn for more knowledge. I strived to soak up as much knowledge as I could after that. It was my motivational push.

Bridge As I am writing this, I am thinking about why I want to write about logic gates. I do not have a specific reason except for the fact that I do not know as much as I should about them. I know they are not difficult components to learn about and I should know more about them. Logic gates make up probably around 70 to 80% of the electronics that I work with on a daily basis. I can go through long-lines and follow logic paths, for the most part. However, when I get into some more difficult gates (ones with more than 1 input or output), sometimes I get stuck. My brain freezes and I have to look up some information. I am hoping that, after completing this course and research paper, that I will have a better understanding of logic gates, how to identify them, what drives them, and how to troubleshoot them....