CHC4013 Foundations of Computer Systems - Resit Essay : Design a Logic Circuit
1. Introduction 1.1. Objectives
CHC4013 Foundations of Computer Systems
Resit Essay (Mid) (Contains 30% marks of the module)
Part 1: Design a Logic Circuit
This coursework is designed to test your attainment of the following:
Learning outcomes – knowledge and understanding.
It is intended that students will develop knowledge and understanding of:
- Number system conversion, logic gates circuits, Boolean algebra, and truth tables
- Design of Logic circuits
Learning outcomes – disciplinary and professional.
It is intended that students will develop the following skills:
- The use of logic circuits
- How to convert the base of a number Transferable skills summary
- Learning transferable skills practiced
- Problem-solving transferable skills taught, practiced, and assessed Details:
- This essay is 30% of the overall mark
- To be submitted by announced by the award leader, at 11.59 pm
- The submission’s word limit for this part is 800 words. This does include figures and tables. This
page limitation excludes the title page, contents, bibliography, and references.
- This essay is an individual piece of work. The University rules concerning plagiarism, syndication
and cheating apply
- The reports longer than 10% of the word limit will be penalized
- All sources have to be referenced as normally required
- Read the entire essay specification sheet thoroughly
1.2. What you have to do
You are required to design a logic circuit to satisfy the requirements given in this document.
1.3. Weighting
30% of the final mark of the module
1.4. Important information
This is an individual piece of work and you should work on your own in this assignment (see University regulation regarding assessments).
Late submissions of coursework are NOT accepted. If you feel you have a valid exceptional reason to hand in coursework late, then you should submit a mitigating circumstances form (see regulations regarding mitigating circumstances)
2. Answer the following questions
In computer systems, it is often necessary to choose data from exactly one of a number of possible sources. Suppose that there are two sources of data, provided as input signals x1 and x2. The values of these signals change in time, perhaps at regular intervals. Thus, sequences of 0s and 1s are applied to each of the inputs x1 and x2. You have to design a circuit that produces an output that has the same value as either x1 or x2, dependent on the value of a selection control signal s. Therefore, the circuit should have three inputs: x1, x2, and s. Assume that the output of the circuit will be the same as the value of input x1 if s = 0, and it will be the same as x2 if s = 1.
2.1. What you have to do:
Based on these requirements, you have to:
1. draw a truth table,
2. derive the canonical sum of products expression using the distributive property,
3. and draw the logic circuit (Sum-of-products and products of-sum) that will satisfy the
above-mentioned conditions.
2.2. Weighting
30% of the final mark of the module
3. Important information
This is an individual piece of work and you should work on your own in this assignment (see
University regulation regarding assessments).
Late submissions of the essay are NOT accepted. If you feel you have a valid exceptional reason to hand in the essay late, then you should submit a mitigating circumstances form (see regulations regarding mitigating circumstances)
4. Marking Scheme
The specification for the assignment gives you lots of freedom to choose which aspect to focus on. Consequently, it is difficult to draw up a detailed marking scheme, but here are some guidelines to
work with. In particular, you should hand in a report including the design of the simplified logic circuits, their truth tables, and a detailed description of the intermediate steps. The Logisim software can help you design and check your simplified circuits.
Things to look for in your report:
Make sure your report is structured in the below section
- Draw the truth table for the above-mentioned situation [5%]
- Write the equation using the distributive property [5%]
- Draw the circuit diagram which satisfies the above conditions and explain it in detail [20%]
This is an individual piece of work and you should work on your own in this assignment (see University regulation regarding assessments).
- 70%-100%: The student has made a good attempt at all of (a)-(g), explaining choices made where appropriate. The student has focussed on them in more detail (e.g. considered multiple risks and solutions). The results should be well presented and there should be appropriate conclusions drawn from them.
- 60%-69%: The student has made a good attempt at all of (a)-(g) with some explanation of choices. A good attempt at designing the specification with several elements in more detail. The results are well presented and concluding comments are given.
- 50%-59%: The student has attempted most of (a)-(g). Design choices are not explained. The specification is presented but does not address the threats sufficiently. Reasonable presentation.
- 40%-49%: The student has attempted half of (a)-(g) and presents some specification (e.g. they designed a particular specification but no justification or explanation). Weak presentation.
- 0%-39%: Less than half of (a)-(g). (e.g. no proper analysis, little evidence of design, poorly presented, little design specification).
Marks and feedback will be available on Student Website 1-2 weeks after submission.
Late submissions of the essay are NOT accepted. If you feel you have a valid exceptional reason to hand in the essay late, then you should submit a mitigating circumstances form (see regulations regarding mitigating circumstances)
University Regulation A3-13 Cheating
All assessments are intended to determine the skills, abilities, understanding, and knowledge of each of the individual students undertaking the assessment. Cheating is defined as conduct (whether successful or not) aimed at deceiving the University into acknowledging a false level of attainment by a student. Cheating including assisting someone else to cheat (including attempting to assist someone else to cheat) may be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with the University's Disciplinary Procedure. The University takes this issue very seriously and students have been expelled or had their degrees withheld for cheating in assessments. It is important that students having difficulties with their work should seek help from their tutors rather than be tempted to use unfair means to gain marks. Students should not risk losing their degree and undermining all the work they have done towards it.
Any form of cheating is strictly forbidden under this regulation but, in order to assist understanding, a number of specific forms of cheating are described. These include but are not limited to the following examples:
- r Submitting other people's work as your own – either with or without their knowledge. This includes copying in examinations; using notes or unauthorized materials in examinations; submitting work you have paid for as your own; impersonation – taking an assessment on behalf of or pretending to be another student, or allowing another person to take an assessment on your behalf or pretend to be you.
- r Plagiarism – taking or using another person's thoughts, writings or inventions as your own. To avoid plagiarism, you must make sure that quotations from whatever source are clearly identified and attributed at the point where they occur in the text of your work by using one of the standard conventions for referencing. The library has a leaflet about how to reference your work correctly and your tutor can also help you. It is not enough just to list sources in a bibliography at the end of your essay or dissertation if you do not acknowledge the actual quotations in the text. Neither is it acceptable to change some of the words or the order of sentences if, by failing to acknowledge the source properly, you give the impression that it is your own work.
- r Collusion – except where written instructions specify that work for assessment may be produced jointly and submitted as the work of more than one student, you must not collude with others to produce a piece of work jointly, copy or share another student's work or lend your work to another student when it is likely that some or all of it will be copied.
- r Duplication – submitting work for assessment that is the same as, or broadly similar to, work submitted earlier for academic credit, without acknowledgment of the previous submission.
- r Falsification – the invention of data, its alteration, its copying from any other source, or otherwise obtaining it by unfair means, or inventing quotations and/or references.
- r Custom writing services – this includes the use of any service which produces custom materials. The University may consider any request placed with any form of custom writing service to be a form of cheating, whatever use is then made of the material produced, and therefore to be an offense under the Student Conduct Regulations. This extends to include any request for any piece of work (either formative or summative assessment or work which is not linked to any form of assessment or credit-bearing element of your programme) including, but not limited to, essays and dissertations (including outlines and guides), reports, exam notes, proposals, posters, presentations, the editing or improvement of existing work, statistical services and computing services including programme and code development.
- r Assisting others to cheat - The University considers assisting others to cheat (including attempting to assist someone else to cheat) as a form of cheating for which the individual student providing assistance is culpable.
You should submit your work by 12:00 pm on the Wednesday, 31st of August, 2022.
