ECE 2031

The College of Computing Building, the location of the Digital Design Laboratory

ECE 2031 is a 2 credit hour ECE laboratory class, and is a requirement for both electrical engineering and computer engineering majors.

Overview

ECE 2031 is, in effect, the laboratory class for ECE 2020 and introduces students to design and implementation methods for digital systems. Labs are released weekly and must be checked off by undergraduate teaching assistants. Pre-lab quizzes are administered prior to lab check offs.

Emphasis is placed on developing technical communications skills; laboratory reports are graded to strict formatting and content standard. The semester concludes with a team project, requiring cooperation within a group of three to four other students.

Topics

As of Spring 2021, the topics covered in the class were:

1. CAD Tools
2. Logic Synthesis using an HDL
3. HDL models of basic gates and logic operations
4. Combinational design using multiple methods: primitive gates, schematic capture for FPGAs, and VHDL
5. HDL based simulation and synthesis with FPGAs
6. Examination of real timing issues on hardware using timing simulation, oscilloscope, and logic analyzer
7. State machine specification, design, and simulation
8. State machine implementation with multiple methods
9. Design verification with logic analyzer
10. HDL models of data storage elements
11. ROM and RAM implementations on FPGA boards
12. Hardware design of a simple computer with ALU, registers, control unit, memory, instructions, and I/O
13. HDL-based simple computer simulation and implementation on FPGA board
14. Machine language and assembly language programming for the simple computer
15. Simulation and implementation of programs on the FPGA board
16. Final design project problem specification (examples: video game, control application, robot, or contest)
17. Hardware and tools available to solve the final design project problem
18. Project engineering issues: top-down vs. bottom-up design, hierarchical decomposition, and modularity

How it Fits into the Curriculum

ECE 2031 is a requirement for EE and CmpE majors, and is a requirement for the CS Systems and Architecture and Devices threads. It is a prerequisite for ECE 3005, ECE 3006, ECE 3040, ECE 3043, ECE 3056, ECE 3150, ECE 4180, ECE 4452, ECE 4550, CS 3220, and CS 3651.

Current Registration Info

ECE 2031 is not a linked course.

Prerequisites

Two prerequisite options exist for ECE 2031. At least one must be met:

1. Both of the following:
   1. C or higher in ECE 2020
   2. C or higher in ECE 2035 or ECE 2036
2. C or higher in CS 2110

AP/IB Credit

No AP or IB credit is available for this course.

Resources

Course Website

This course has a custom-made website which includes pre-lab and lab guides. In addition, lab checkoffs are done through this website.

All other info for this course will be on Canvas, or wherever the syllabus says.