Digital Logic and Computer Systems

Course Description

Digital Logic and Computer Systems is an overview of logic design, algorithms, computer organization, sequential circuit design, and computer engineering technology.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, EEL is the Electrical Engineering prefix. The University of West Florida publishes this at 3 semester hours through the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Science and Engineering. Institutions carrying the integrated EEL3701C offer it at approximately 3 Florida institutions.

Digital logic is the point where electrical engineering and computer science genuinely meet, and the course is unusual in requiring almost no prior electrical background. UWF's prerequisite is a mathematics course, not a circuits course — because at this level of abstraction a gate is a Boolean function rather than a network of transistors. That makes this one of the most accessible upper-division EEL courses, and a common entry point for computer science students.

The intellectual content is the construction of a computer from nothing. Start with a switch, build a gate, build an adder, add memory to get state, formalise state as a finite state machine, and combine a datapath with a control unit — and the result is a processor. A student who follows that chain understands what a computer is in a way that no amount of programming conveys, and it is the reason this course is required in both disciplines.

⚠ Why this guide exists under this number

Many Florida institutions carry this material as a single integrated course with a C suffix. UWF instead runs a separate lecture and a separate laboratory, each with its own SCNS number, and this guide documents the UWF lecture. Its laboratory partner is documented separately in this repository. ⚠ SCNS equivalency does not cross numbers, so a transfer between the integrated and split forms is evaluated by hand rather than automatically — carry a syllabus in either direction.

⚠ The contact-hour figure is derived — the University of West Florida publishes none

UWF's catalog publishes a credit value in semester hours, the college and department, prerequisites, and a description. It does not publish contact hours, a lecture and laboratory split, or terms of offering for any course. It does publish a material and supply fee notice on the minority of courses that carry one — and maintains a separate Material & Supply and Equipment Fees section of the catalog — so the absence of a fee notice on this entry is meaningful, while the fee amount is not published here. Every contact-hour value in a UWF guide in this repository is therefore derived. The figure here applies the standard lecture convention of 15 contact hours per credit, giving 45 hours for a 3-semester-hour course. Confirm the meeting schedule with the department.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Convert between binary, octal, decimal, and hexadecimal representations.
• Represent signed numbers using two's complement and analyse overflow.
• Describe binary codes including BCD, Gray, and ASCII.
• Apply the axioms and theorems of Boolean algebra.
• Express functions in sum-of-products and product-of-sums form.
• Minimise Boolean functions using Karnaugh maps including don't-care conditions.
• Apply the Quine-McCluskey method for larger functions.
• Design combinational circuits from a specification.
• Design and apply multiplexers, decoders, encoders, and comparators.
• Design adders, subtractors, and describe carry propagation.
• Identify and eliminate hazards in combinational logic.
• Describe latch and flip-flop operation and their differences.
• Analyse timing using setup and hold time requirements.
• Design counters and shift registers.
• Analyse and design synchronous finite state machines.
• Apply state reduction and state assignment techniques.
• Distinguish Mealy from Moore machines and select appropriately.
• Describe memory organisation and addressing.
• Describe datapath and control unit organisation.
• Describe instruction execution and basic computer organisation.
• Describe register transfer level design.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe programmable logic devices and FPGA architecture.
• Write simple hardware description language descriptions.
• Describe asynchronous sequential circuit analysis.
• Describe arithmetic logic unit design.
• Describe pipelining at an introductory level.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Number systems and base conversion
• Signed representation and two's complement
• Binary codes
• Boolean algebra
• Canonical forms
• Karnaugh map minimisation
• Quine-McCluskey minimisation
• Combinational design
• Multiplexers, decoders, encoders, comparators
• Adders and carry propagation
• Hazards
• Latches and flip-flops
• Setup, hold, and clock timing
• Counters and registers
• Finite state machine analysis and design
• State reduction and assignment
• Mealy and Moore machines
• Memory organisation
• Datapath and control
• Basic computer organisation
• Register transfer level design

Optional Topics

• Programmable logic and FPGAs
• Hardware description languages
• Asynchronous sequential circuits
• ALU design
• Introductory pipelining

Resources & Tools

• Mano and Ciletti, Digital Design — the most widely adopted text for this course worldwide.
• Wakerly, Digital Design: Principles and Practices — the standard alternative, stronger on practical detail.
• Harris and Harris, Digital Design and Computer Architecture — the best choice if you intend to continue to EEL4712 and EEL4713, since it carries the same thread through to a processor.
• Logisim Evolution — free; build and simulate logic circuits graphically, and it is the fastest way to check a design before an examination.
• CircuitVerse — free and browser-based; no installation required.
• Digital (hneemann) — free; a well-regarded simulator that also exports to HDL.
• nandgame and Nand2Tetris — free; both build a computer from gates upward, which is exactly this course's arc, and they are genuinely effective as supplementary learning.
• Karnaugh map solvers — free online; useful for checking work, and useless as a substitute for the skill, which is examined by hand.

Career Pathways

• Computer hardware engineers — SOC 17-2061.
• Electrical and electronics engineers — SOC 17-2071, 17-2072.
• Digital design and FPGA engineering — this course is the foundation; EEL4712 and EEL4712L are the next steps.
• Embedded systems and firmware — a very large employment category, and EEL4744 follows directly from here.
• Computer architecture — EEL4713 continues the thread.
• Florida defence electronics — L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman; radar and signal processing hardware is FPGA-heavy.
• Software engineering — an honest note: this material makes a better systems programmer. Understanding memory, representation, and what the hardware actually does is what separates people who can debug hard problems from those who cannot.

Special Information

⚠⚠ The asterisk in a UWF prerequisite means the course may be taken at the same time

• UWF's catalog marks a concurrent course with an asterisk, defined on the catalog's Course Information page as: "This course may be taken prior to or during the same term."
• ⚠ This is the single most useful piece of notation in the UWF engineering catalog, and it is easy to miss. A prerequisite written without an asterisk must be completed first; one written with an asterisk may be taken in the same term.
• The practical effect is on time to degree. Reading an asterisked prerequisite as a hard prerequisite adds a term to the sequence for no reason, and in a tightly chained major like electrical engineering that error compounds down the whole plan.
• Confirm with an advisor before relying on it, and note that the registration system, not the catalog text, is what actually enforces the rule.

⚠⚠ EEL3701 and EEL3701L each list the other — they are bound together

• UWF lists EEL3701L* among the prerequisites for EEL3701, and lists EEL3701* as the prerequisite for EEL3701L. The requirement runs in both directions.
• ⚠ The practical effect is that the pair is effectively a single unit. Because each names the other with the concurrent asterisk, a student normally enrols in both in the same term — taking the lecture alone is not the intended path and may not be permitted.
• ⚠⚠ This is the strongest form of the split-course binding found in the UWF catalog, and it is the clearest evidence that the lecture and laboratory are two halves of one course rather than a course and an optional companion.
• Budget for both. The pair is 4 semester hours in total, not 3, and the laboratory carries its own weekly session.
• Confirm with an advisor — the registration system, not the catalog text, is what enforces this.

⚠ The prerequisite is mathematics, not circuits — and the options are broad

• UWF publishes: (MAC2311* OR MAC1114 OR MAC2312 OR MAC1147) AND (EEL3701L*).
• ⚠ The mathematics branch is unusually permissive — calculus, trigonometry, or precalculus all satisfy it, and MAC2311 is asterisked so it may be taken concurrently. The mathematics is a maturity requirement rather than a content prerequisite.
• ⚠⚠ No circuits course is required. This course is genuinely open to computer science students and to electrical engineering students early in the programme, and it can be taken before or alongside EEL3111.
• EEL3701L is asterisked and must be taken with or before — see the reciprocal note above.

⚠⚠ Where students go wrong in digital logic

• Karnaugh maps reward practice and punish cleverness. The method is mechanical; students who try to spot groupings by eye miss the largest ones and produce a correct but unminimised result.
• ⚠ Don't-care conditions are an opportunity, not a complication. Treating them as zeros produces a working but larger circuit, and using them properly is frequently the difference between full and partial credit.
• ⚠⚠ State machine design fails at the state diagram, not the algebra. If the diagram does not correctly capture the specification, everything downstream is a correct implementation of the wrong machine. Draw it, then walk through the specification against it before proceeding.
• Mealy and Moore machines are not interchangeable. Mealy outputs depend on inputs directly and can glitch; Moore outputs are registered and lag by a cycle. Choosing between them is a design decision with real consequences.
• ⚠ Setup and hold violations are the timing concept that carries furthest. They reappear in EEL4712 as timing closure, and understanding them here saves considerable pain later.
• Latches and flip-flops are different devices. Level-sensitive versus edge-triggered behaviour is a distinction students blur, and it causes design errors that simulate inconsistently.

Course format and position in the curriculum

• Lecture with problem sets and examinations, with the laboratory carried separately by EEL3701L.
• Typically taken in the second year, and it gates EEL4712, EEL4713, and EEL4744.
• ⚠ It is a hard prerequisite for three fourth-year courses, so a delay here constrains the whole computer engineering track.
• The real weekly commitment is for 4 credits, counting the paired laboratory.
• UWF publishes no contact hours, lecture and laboratory split, or terms of offering for any course, and no material and supply fee is noted on this entry — though EEL3701L does carry one. Confirm the offering pattern with the department.

FE exam relevance

The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam is the first step toward Professional Engineer licensure, and in Florida it is administered under the Florida Board of Professional Engineers. Most students take the FE Electrical and Computer exam in their final year. Licensure matters less in electrical engineering than in civil — the industrial exemption means most electrical engineers in manufacturing and product work never need a PE — but it is required for consulting practice, for sealing designs, and for power and building-systems work, which is exactly where Florida's utility and infrastructure employment sits.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement. ⚠ For engineering specifically, ABET-accredited programmes commonly require that upper-division engineering coursework be taken in residence, so transferability of the credit and applicability to the degree are separate questions.

EEL3701 is 3 semester hours at the University of West Florida, taken with the 1-semester-hour EEL3701L. Institutions carrying the integrated EEL3701C cover the same material in one course.