CET1112C: Digital Fundamentals with Laboratory

Course Description

CET1112C is the first digital course in Florida's Computer Engineering Technology and Electronics Engineering Technology programs. The Statewide Course Numbering System defines it as Digital Fundamentals — digital codes, logic circuits and Boolean algebra — and describes it as "a first course: gates, registers, counters, sequential and combined logic. Hardware oriented." The state description is explicit that the treatment is hardware-oriented rather than mathematical: students build and troubleshoot logic, they do not merely analyse it on paper.

The C suffix marks an integrated lecture-plus-laboratory course. Lecture and laboratory are one registration and one grade, and the course typically carries 60 contact hours for 3 credits rather than the 45 of a lecture-only course. That difference is the most common scheduling surprise here: it consumes about four hours of scheduled time a week, not three.

The course is offered at five Florida public colleges, each under its own local title — Gulf Coast State College ("Digital and Computer Circuits"), Daytona State College ("Digital Fundamentals and Lab"), Indian River State College ("Logic Circuits I"), Pensacola State College ("Digital Fundamentals") and Hillsborough Community College ("Basic Digital Systems"). All five carry it at 3 credits. The titles vary more than the content does: each is the same first course in combinational and sequential logic, and the statewide definition is what governs transfer.

Gulf Coast State College's catalog entry is representative of how the course is actually delivered: "integrated lecture and laboratory experiences to facilitate the study of digital integrated circuits, number systems, and Boolean algebra simplification and introduction to computer architecture… gates, counters, adders, registers, multivibrators, and arithmetic logic units. National Instruments MultiSim will be used to design circuits and protoboards with test equipment will be used to build and test circuits." Note the pairing — simulation and a physical build, with both assessed. That is the pattern across these programmes.

Students arrive from two directions. Most are in an A.S. or A.A.S. degree in Computer Engineering Technology, Electronics Engineering Technology, or a networking or biomedical-equipment programme, where this course is the gateway to microprocessors, computer architecture and embedded systems. A smaller group arrives from industry, sent by an employer to formalise troubleshooting knowledge already acquired on the job.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Convert values among binary, octal, decimal and hexadecimal, and explain why hexadecimal is the working notation of digital hardware.
• Perform binary arithmetic, including addition, subtraction by two's complement, and the detection of overflow.
• Represent data in the common digital codes — BCD, Gray code, ASCII — and state where each is used and why.
• Write the Boolean expression for a logic circuit, and draw the circuit for a Boolean expression.
• Simplify Boolean expressions using the laws and theorems of Boolean algebra, DeMorgan's theorems, and Karnaugh maps of up to four variables.
• Analyse a combinational circuit by constructing its complete truth table.
• Design a combinational circuit from a written specification, minimise it, and implement it with standard logic gates.
• Explain the operation of latches and flip-flops (SR, D, JK), including clocking, edge triggering, and asynchronous preset and clear.
• Analyse and construct counters and shift registers, both asynchronous (ripple) and synchronous.
• Build working circuits on a breadboard from a schematic, using standard logic families, and observe their behaviour with a logic probe and an oscilloscope.
• Troubleshoot a non-functioning logic circuit systematically, isolating the fault to a gate, a connection or a design error.
• Read a manufacturer's data sheet for a logic device and extract pin assignments, logic function, supply requirements and propagation delay.

Optional Outcomes

These appear at some institutions and not others, and are often the point at which one college's version of the course runs further than another's.

• Simulate a logic design in software (Multisim, Logisim Evolution or similar) and compare the simulated result with a physical build.
• Describe simple logic in a hardware description language (VHDL or Verilog) and target a CPLD or FPGA development board.
• Analyse and design finite state machines from a state diagram.
• Compare logic families — TTL, CMOS, LVCMOS — on voltage levels, noise margin, fan-out and power.
• Explain the operation of arithmetic logic units, multiplexers, decoders and comparators at the MSI level.
• Describe semiconductor memory organisation (RAM, ROM, flash) and address decoding.
• Introduce the internal architecture of a microprocessor as the destination the course builds toward.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Number systems and codes — binary, octal, hexadecimal; conversion in both directions; BCD, Gray code, ASCII; parity.
• Binary arithmetic — addition, subtraction, one's and two's complement, signed representation, overflow.
• Logic gates — AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, XOR, XNOR; truth tables; timing diagrams; the universality of NAND and NOR.
• Boolean algebra — laws and rules, DeMorgan's theorems, sum-of-products and product-of-sums forms.
• Karnaugh maps — two, three and four variables; don't-care conditions; minimisation to a practical implementation.
• Combinational logic functions — adders, comparators, decoders, encoders, multiplexers, demultiplexers, parity generators.
• Latches and flip-flops — SR latch, gated latch, D and JK flip-flops, edge triggering, setup and hold time, propagation delay.
• Counters — asynchronous and synchronous, up/down, modulus, cascading, decoding.
• Shift registers — serial and parallel in and out, bidirectional, ring and Johnson counters.
• Laboratory practice — breadboarding, power and ground discipline, data-sheet reading, use of the logic probe, pulser, function generator and oscilloscope, and systematic fault isolation.

Optional Topics

• Logic families and interfacing: TTL versus CMOS levels, open-collector and tri-state outputs, pull-up resistors.
• Finite state machine design: state diagrams, state tables, state assignment.
• Programmable logic: CPLDs and FPGAs, and an introduction to VHDL or Verilog.
• Semiconductor memories and address decoding.
• Digital-to-analogue and analogue-to-digital conversion as the boundary with the analogue world.
• Introduction to microprocessor architecture, buses and assembly language, previewing CET1117C or CET2123C.
• Test equipment beyond the basics: logic analysers, and the interpretation of a multi-channel timing capture.

Resources & Tools

• Digital Fundamentals by Thomas L. Floyd is the most widely adopted text for this course in Florida and nationally; its chapter sequence follows the statewide topic list closely enough that many syllabi track it directly.
• Digital Systems: Principles and Applications by Tocci, Widmer and Moss is the common alternative, with a somewhat stronger treatment of troubleshooting.
• Digital Design by M. Morris Mano appears where a college pitches the course toward transfer rather than technician practice; it is more mathematical and less hardware-oriented than the state description implies.
• Multisim (NI) for schematic capture and simulation; many colleges hold an academic site licence.
• Logisim Evolution — free and open-source, widely used where no commercial licence is available. Good for combinational and sequential design; not a substitute for a physical build.
• Falstad Circuit Simulator (falstad.com) — a free browser tool useful for seeing gate behaviour and timing without installing anything.
• Tinkercad Circuits — free and browser-based, increasingly used for at-home lab work.
• Laboratory hardware: solderless breadboards, 7400-series TTL and 74HC-series CMOS devices, logic probes, logic pulsers, DC power supplies, function generators and dual-trace oscilloscopes. Some programmes add a CPLD or FPGA trainer board (Digilent Basys or similar).
• Manufacturer data sheets from Texas Instruments, ON Semiconductor and Nexperia — reading these is itself an assessed skill.
• IEEE Std 91-1984 (with ANSI) defines the distinctive-shape and rectangular-outline logic symbols; students meet both conventions in industry drawings.

Career Pathways

• Electrical and Electronics Engineering Technician (SOC 17-3023) — the direct destination of the A.S. degree this course sits in.
• Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technician (SOC 17-3024) — manufacturing and automation roles where digital control is half the job.
• Avionics Technician (SOC 49-2091) — strong Florida demand along the Space Coast and at the state's maintenance, repair and overhaul operations.
• Computer Network Support Specialist (SOC 15-1231) — where students continue into the CET networking sequence.
• Medical Equipment Repairer (SOC 49-9062) — biomedical equipment technology programmes use this course as their digital foundation.
• Florida employers hiring at this level in numbers: L3Harris (Melbourne and Palm Bay), Lockheed Martin (Orlando), Northrop Grumman (Melbourne and St. Augustine), Siemens Energy (Orlando), Jabil (St. Petersburg), Blue Origin and SpaceX at and around Kennedy Space Center, Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy Florida, and the defence and simulation cluster in Central Florida.

Special Information

⚠⚠ The same course exists as CET1112 without the C — and the difference is real

Florida's statewide inventory carries both CET1112 and CET1112C under the same statewide title. They are not interchangeable:

• CET1112C (this course) — integrated lecture and laboratory, carried by the five public colleges named above.
• CET1112 — the lecture-only form, carried by a single private institution (CBT Technology Institute), which calls it "Digital Electronics & Microprocessors".

If you are at a Florida public college, the course you will register for is CET1112C. If you are transferring credit in under the bare number, expect the receiving programme to ask whether your course included laboratory hours, because a digital course without a bench component does not prepare you for the microprocessor and troubleshooting courses that follow.

Offering Notes — offerings and hours, school by school

Every institution carrying CET1112C lists it at 3 credits — there is no credit divergence in this course, which is worth stating plainly because several of its neighbours in the CET prefix do vary.

Institution	Its title	Credits	Contact hours
Gulf Coast State College	Digital and Computer Circuits	3	not published
Daytona State College	Digital Fundamentals and Lab	3	not published
Indian River State College	Logic Circuits I	3	not published
Pensacola State College	Digital Fundamentals	3	not published
Hillsborough Community College	Basic Digital Systems	3	not published

All five are Florida College System institutions, so statewide numbering guarantees transfer of this course between them.

⚠ The 60 contact hours given at the top of this guide are derived, not sourced. None of the five colleges publishes a contact-hour figure for this course; 60 is the standard Florida allocation for a 3-credit integrated lecture-and-laboratory course — about two hours of lecture and two to three of laboratory a week. Your own college's schedule is the authority: check the scheduled meeting pattern, not the credit value, when you plan a term around it.

Credits are taken from the statewide inventory's per-institution records. Gulf Coast additionally restricts the course to the spring term, which is a harder constraint than any hour count.

Position in the curriculum

This is a first-year course with no prerequisite in the statewide definition, but individual colleges do gate it, and the gates are real. Gulf Coast State College requires MAC1105 (College Algebra) and EET1084C with a minimum grade of C, and offers the course in the spring term only — a scheduling constraint worth knowing a year ahead, because missing it costs a full year in the sequence rather than a term. Other colleges commonly require or recommend a DC circuits course first and gate on college-level algebra placement; check your own catalog rather than assuming the statewide "no prerequisite" applies. It is in turn the prerequisite, formally or in practice, for microprocessors (CET1117C, CET2123C or EET2141C depending on the college), computer architecture, and any embedded systems or PLC course in the programme. Failing it delays the whole second-year sequence by a term, because the courses that follow are offered once a year at several of these colleges.

Articulation and transfer

The statewide numbering system guarantees transfer of CET1112C to any Florida public institution offering the same course number. Two cautions matter more than the guarantee:

• Transfer of credit is not the same as satisfying a requirement. This is an Engineering Technology course. In a B.S. in Electrical or Computer Engineering the digital logic requirement is normally met by an upper-division course in the EEL prefix (commonly EEL3701C, Digital Logic and Computer Systems), and CET1112C generally will not substitute for it. Students planning to transfer into a BSEE or BSCpE should confirm this with the receiving department before relying on the course.
• Into a B.A.S. or B.S. in Engineering Technology, Information Technology or a similar applied degree, it articulates as intended and is usually a required lower-division foundation.

Course format and workload

Expect roughly two hours of lecture and two to three hours of scheduled laboratory each week, hence the 60 contact hours. The laboratory is where the grade is won or lost: circuits that work in simulation frequently do not work on a breadboard, and the difference is almost always wiring discipline, a floating input, or a missing decoupling capacitor. Budget six to eight hours a week outside class, more in the weeks covering Karnaugh maps and sequential circuits, which are where students most often lose the thread.

Certification

No certification maps directly to this course. It is, however, the foundation beneath the certifications the rest of the programme targets — CompTIA A+ and Network+, the Cisco CCNA sequence, and manufacturer-specific automation credentials — and it supplies the prerequisite knowledge assumed by the ETA International Associate Certified Electronics Technician examination, which shares the letters CET with this prefix by coincidence rather than design.

Course-code variation across Florida

The same first digital course appears under several numbers depending on the programme it serves: CET1112C in computer engineering technology; CET1114C where the college follows the "Digital Fundamentals (one course)" definition, which assumes a prior solid-state electronics course; equivalents in the EET prefix in some electronics technology programmes; and EEL3701C as the university-level counterpart, which is a different and more demanding course despite overlapping topics. Match on content and laboratory hours, not on the number alone.

AI Integration

Large language models are now a routine first stop for a student stuck on a Karnaugh map or a flip-flop timing question, and this course is an unusually clear case of where that help ends.

Where the tools are genuinely useful: explaining a concept a second way when the textbook's phrasing does not land; generating practice problems and worked conversions between number systems; drafting a first-pass state table from a written specification; explaining an unfamiliar data-sheet parameter; and writing or commenting HDL boilerplate where the course reaches VHDL or Verilog.

Where they fail, and why it matters here: current models are unreliable at exactly the mechanical tasks this course assesses. They produce truth tables with transcription errors, group Karnaugh map cells illegally — wrapping incorrectly, or grouping non-adjacent cells — drop don't-care conditions, and confuse edge-triggered with level-sensitive behaviour when describing flip-flops. The answer arrives in confident, correctly formatted prose, which is what makes it dangerous to a beginner who cannot yet check it.

The coincidence worth noticing: the central skill this course teaches — verify the circuit against its truth table, then verify the build against the circuit — is the exact procedure that catches an incorrect machine-generated answer. A student who has learned to test a design systematically can use these tools safely; one who has not is in no position to use them at all. Treat any generated simplification as an unverified claim and check it by expanding the expression back to its truth table.

Academic integrity: the laboratory component is individually observed, and instructors in this course commonly assess by asking a student to explain a circuit at the bench. Submitted work a student cannot explain is the failure mode institutions look for. Check your college's academic integrity policy and your syllabus — practice varies by instructor within the same department.