Over Seven Weeks

Over the last seven weeks, class in ECET 230 has been extremely insightful. I have learned a great deal of information that I can and will use in my future classes and/or career. For example during week 1 we learned about arithmetic circuits and the adding/subtracting of binary numbers. The first thing that we went over was the basic rules of dealing with binary numbers. First thing is when you are adding them, 1+1=1 0 not 2, 1+1+1=1 1 not 3, however 0+1 still equals 1 and 0+0 still does equal 0. When dealing with binary numbers the only numbers used is 1 and 0. That means that for example 1111 = 15 and another example 10000101 = 128 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 4 + 0 + 1 = 133.

In the first lab we developed a multisim schematic that shows binary adders/subtractors. The schematic shows the breakdown or the proper way to add and subtract binary numbers. When we ran the demonstration our mission was to see if the simulation’s results matched our results. If they didn’t then we would have to look for what went wrong. If they matched then have properly completed the steps to properly add and subtract binary numbers.

There were a couple circuits that we learned about during the first week of class. The two circuits that we learnt about are the Half Adder circuit and the Full Adder circuit. The Half Adder circuit is an example of a simple, functional digital circuit built from two logic gates.  The half adder adds to one-bit binary numbers.  The output is the sum of the two bits and the carry. Note how the same two inputs are directed to two different gates.  The inputs to the XOR gate are also the inputs to the AND gate.  The input "wires" to the XOR gate are tied to the input wires of the AND gate; thus, when voltage is applied to the A input of the XOR gate, the A input to the AND gate receives the same voltage.

The Full Adder circuit is developed in a similar form as the Half Adder circuit. The Full Adder circuit adds three one-bit binary numbers and outputs two...