In the past ten years there has been a revolution in the practice of hardware design. Professionals now rely on CAD software, rapid prototyping, and programmable logic devices to streamline the design process. Contemporary Logic Design is the first text to address these changes and offer a truly modern introduction to logic design. From the first chapter, the author complements his presentation of logic design theory with discussions of current design technologies.
The book provides comprehensive coverage of programmable logic, including ROMs, PALs, and PLAs. A Practical Matters section concludes most chapters, which ties theory to practice and explains design technologies in detail. To synthesize the text coverage of combinational and sequential design methods, the author uses a detailed case study of a simple processor design in the final two chapters.
The text introduces readers to a wide range of software tools, including schematic capture, logic simulation and Boolean minimization, and demonstrates how they fit into the hardware design process. The author also encourages hands-on experimentation with software tools such as LogicWorks to bolster the reader's understanding of practical design methods.