Introduction to Digital Systems

Introduction
 In science, technology, business, and, in fact, most other fields
of endeavor, we are constantly dealing with quantities.

 Quantities are measured, monitored, recorded, manipulated

arithmetically, observed, or in some other way utilized in most
physical systems.

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 It is important when dealing with various quantities that we be
able to represent their values efficiently and accurately.

 There are basically two ways of representing the numerical

value of quantities: analog and digital.

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 Digital versus Analog systems
Analog Representation:
Analog voltage vs time
 In analog representation a quantity 5

is represented by a voltage, current, 3

or meter movement that is 1

Voltage(V)
proportional to the value of that 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
-1

quantity.
-3

 Analog quantities such as those -5

Time(s)
cited above have an important
characteristic: they can vary over a
continuous range of values.

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Digital Representation:

 In digital representation the Digital voltage vs time

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quantities are represented not
3

by proportional quantities
1

Voltage(V)
but by symbols called digits. -1 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

 As an example, consider the -3

-5
digital watch, which Time (s)

provides the time of day in The major difference between

analog and digital quantities is
the form of decimal digits
which represent hours and Analog  Continuous
minutes (and sometimes Digital  Discrete
seconds). 4
 As we know, the time of day changes continuously, but the
digital watch reading does not change continuously; rather, it
changes in steps of one per minute (or per second).

 In other words, this digital representation of the time of day

changes in discrete steps, as compared with the representation of
time provided by an analog watch, where the dial reading
changes continuously.

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 Advantages and Limitations of Digital Techniques
 Advantages
 Digital systems are easier to design.
 The switching circuits in which there are only two voltage levels, HIGH and LOW, are
easier to design. The exact numerical values of voltages are not important because they
have only logical significance; only the range in which they fall is important.

 Information storage is easy.

 There are many types of semiconductor and magnetic memories of large capacity which
can store data for periods as long as necessary.

 Accuracy and precision are greater.

 Digital systems arc much more accurate and precise than analog systems, because digital
systems can be easily expanded to handle more digits by adding more switching circuits.
Analog systems will be quite complex and costly for the same accuracy and precision.
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 Digital systems are more versatile (Changeable or
inconstant).
 It is fairly easy to design digital systems whose operation is controlled
by a set of stored instructions called the program. Any time the system
operation is to be changed, it can easily be accomplished by modifying
the program

 Digital circuits are less affected by noise.

 Unwanted electrical signals are called noise.
Noise is unavoidable in any system. Since in analog systems the exact
values of voltages are important and in digital systems only the range of
values is important, the effect of noise is more severe in analog systems.
In digital systems, noise is not critical as long as it is not large enough to
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prevent us from distinguishing a HIGH from a LOW.
 Limitation
There is really only one major drawback when using digital
techniques:

“ The real world is mainly analog”

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 To take advantage of digital techniques when dealing with analog
inputs and outputs, three steps must be followed:

 Convert the real-world analog inputs to digital form. (ADC)

 Process (operate on) the digital information.

 Convert the digital outputs back to real-world analog form.
(DAC)

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The following diagram shows a temperature control system that requires analog/digital
conversions in order to allow the use of digital processing techniques.

(Analog) (Digital)
Temperature
(analog) Measuring Analog-to-Digital Digital
Device Converter (ADC) Processing

Digital-to- Analog Adjust

Converter (DAC) Controller
temperature
(Digital) (Analog)

Block diagram of a typical temperature control system.

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 The need for conversion between analog and digital forms of
information can be considered a drawback because of the added
complexity and expense.

 Another factor that is often important is the extra time required to

perform these conversions.

 In many applications, these factors are outweighed by the

numerous advantages of using digital techniques, and so the
conversion between analog and digital quantities has become
quite commonplace in the current technology.

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 There are situations, however, where using only analog
techniques is simpler and more economical.
 For example, the process of signal amplification is most easily accomplished
using analog circuitry.

 It is becoming more and more common to see both digital and

analog techniques employed within the same system in order
to profit from the advantages of each.

 In these hybrid systems, one of the most important parts of the

design phase involves determining what parts of the system
are to be analog and what parts are to be digital.
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 Binary logic Gates
 The general public as being magical sometimes looks upon
computers, calculators, and other digital devices.

 Actually, digital electronic devices are extremely logical in their

operation.

 The basic building block of any digital circuit is a logic gate.

 The logic gates we will use operate with binary numbers, hence
the term binary logic gates.

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 Logic gates are the building blocks for even the most complex
computers.

 Logic gates can be constructed by using simple switches,

relays, transistors and diodes, or lCs.

 Because of their availability, wide use, and low cost, ICs will be
used to construct digital circuits.

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 Digital Signals

 Digital systems use the binary number system.

 Therefore, two-state devices are used to represent the two binary
digits 1 and 0 by two different voltage levels, called HIGH and
LOW.

 If the HIGH voltage level is used to represent 1 and the LOW

voltage level to represent 0, the system is called the positive logic
system. HIGH

Leading Trailing
edge edge

LOW

a) Positive pulse

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 On the other hand, if the HIGH voltage level represents 0 and the
LOW voltage level represents 1, the system is called the negative
logic system.

H IG H
Leading
Tra iling
edge
edge

LOW

b) Negative pulse

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 Normally, the binary 0 and 1 are represented by the logic
voltage levels 0V and +5 V.

 So, in positive logic system, 1 is represented by + 5 V (HIGH)

and 0 is represented by 0 V (LOW); and in a negative logic
system, 0 is represented by + 5 V (HIGH) and l is represented
by 0 V ( LOW).

 Both positive and negative logics are used in digital systems,

but the positive logic is more common.

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 In reality, because of circuit variations, the 0 and 1 would be
represented by voltage ranges instead of particular voltage levels.

 Example of Voltages Level in Transistor-transistor logic (TTL)

family

HIGH
5.0V (Logic 1)

2.0 V Indeterminate
range

0.8V LOW
(Logic 0)

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0V
Waveform Characteristics

Most waveforms encountered in digital systems are composed of

series of pulses, sometimes called pulse trains, and can be
classified as either periodic or non-periodic.

A periodic pulse waveform is one that repeats itself at a fixed

interval, called a period (T). The frequency (f) is the rate at
which it repeats itself and is measured in hertz (Hz).

T1 T2 T3

Period =T1=T2=T3=…=Tn
Frequency=1/T
Periodic pulse-train

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A non-periodic pulse waveform, of course, does not repeat itself at
fixed intervals and may be composed of pulses of randomly differing
pulse widths and/or randomly differing time intervals between the
pulses.

Non-Periodic pulse-train

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The frequency (f) of a pulse (digital) waveform is the reciprocal of
the period. The relationship between frequency and period is
expressed as follows:

An important characteristic of a periodic digital waveform is its duty

cycle. The duty cycle is the ratio of the pulse width (tW) to the period
(T) and can be expressed as a percentage.
Tw Tw

T
T
Duty cycle = 75%
Duty cycle = 50%

Duty cycle   W100%

t
T 

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