CS270: DIGITAL DESIGN

Digital Systems in the World Around Us

Digital Design 10th January 2023 1

 Topics Covered

• What is Computer Engineering?

• Who is a Computer Engineer?
• Career in Computer Engineering
• Motivation: Computer Engineering
• Digital Systems
• Digitization

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 What is Computer Engineering?
• TstComputer engineering is a discipline that
integrates several fields of electrical engineering
and computer science required to develop
computer hardware and software
• Most computer engineering courses focus on
networking, circuitry, and electronic applications
• Computer engineering blends together computer
science and electrical engineering to further
advancements in digital technology, computer
networking and computer systems
• Computer engineering deals with hardware and
software, ensuring that the two are seamlessly
integrated and functioning properly.
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What is Computer Engineering? (contd.)
• Build circuit boards, the chips that connect them, &
all the devices and other hardware (CD/DVD
drives)

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 Who is a Computer Engineer?
• Computer engineers use hardware and software to
produce devices.
• Devices: ranging from robots to supercomputers
and microcontrollers to read data from sensors and
implement control functions in order to drive
motors and other mechanical devices
• Computer Engineers also build cell phones,
antennas, smart grids, and new stealth materials
• Most companies also prefer engineers who are
experienced in computer programming and have
diverse knowledge of different programming
languages
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 Who is a Computer Engineer? (contd.)
• Computer engineers focus on innovation—making
computing systems safer, faster and more powerful
• Note, at the career level, there are two main
avenues: hardware and software engineering
• Hardware engineers focus their skills on computer
systems and components, designing
microprocessors, circuit boards, routers and other
embedded devices
• On the software side, these engineers create, test
and debug programs and applications that run on
computers, mobile devices and more

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 Career in Computer Engineering
• Robotics search and rescue
• Military reconnaissance and surveillance
• Intelligent automation and specialized systems
• Mobile, web, and software engineering
• Alternative energy production and control
• Avionics
• Manufacturing automation
• Supercomputing smart antennas
• Etc..

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 Motivation: Computer Engineering
• Computer Engineering Salary: Great Potential
Income Within Your Hands
• Tech companies keep growing in the Silicon Valley
area
• As a result of this growth, there is a shortage of
computer engineers in the area
• The demand for talented engineers caused
salaries to shoot up that it is normal to come
across computer engineering salary going above
$100,000 in this Bay Area
• Big tech companies even offer signing bonuses for
computer engineers that are fresh out of school to
attract newDigital
talents
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 Boards

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 Boards (contd.)

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 Boards (contd.)

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 Computer Engineering vs OS
• The OS acts as a bridge between the hardware
and software
• So, OS developers need to work with engineers so
that this bridge can be tailored to the physical
system

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 Digital Systems
• Digital Systems exist everywhere
- Communication, banks, hospitals, Internet etc.
• Computers are digital systems
- Programmable, flexible

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 Digital Systems (contd.)
• Digital Systems
• “Analog” versus “Digital” parameters and systems
• Digitization of “Analog” signals
• Digital representation of information
• Effect of noise on the reliability and choice of digital
system representation

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 Digital vs. Analogy System
• We live in an analog world (continuous)
• Analog signals are continuous in nature
- Smooth transition over a period of time
- Represent a physical quantity or phenomenon
- E.g. temperature of a cup of tea being boiled

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 Digital vs. Analogy System (contd.)
• Digital signals are non-continuous i.e., discrete
- Consist of fixed set of digits, e.g. number of
months in a year = 12 digits = {1, 2, 3, . . ., 10, 11,
12},
- Abrupt transition from one digit to another

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 Digitization
• TstDigitization is the process of converting from
analog to digital
• Analog to digital (ADC) converters perform
digitization
• Digital to analog (DAC) converters regenerate the
analog signals from their digitized form

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 Why Digitization?
• The world around us is analog
• Digital systems are simple to understand &
comprehend
• Thus .... Common practice is to convert analog
signals into digital form for efficient processing of
Signals
• Inevitable to avoid loss of some accuracy
(information) due to this conversion
• Reason: digital systems can only represent fixed
(finite or discrete) set of values

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 Planning for Digitization
• Needs Assessment (determine your users)
• What are you going to digitize and why?
(determine a criteria of selecting materials for
digitization)
• How are you going to digitize? (in-house or out –
sourced)
• Consider copyright issues
• Determine the cost based on the option chosen
• Come up with a work plan

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 Who Are Users – Digitization?
• TstA needs assessment should be carried out to
determine potential users and their specific needs.
- who are they, general users or staff members,
professionals, researchers etc?

• How these are going to access the digitized

collection (internally or remotely)?

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What are you going to digitize and why?
• Materials to be digitized should be carefully
selected.

• A Criteria for selecting such materials should be

set clearly and consistently

• The criteria should march the user needs

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 Are the Materials Copyrighted or Not?
• Copyright issues need to be tackled before
materials are digitized
• Determine which materials are in public domain
and which ones may require seeking permissions
from the rights holders e.g. publishers, authors,
creators, composers etc.
• When you are not sure, it is advisable to seek
guidance from relevant authorities such copyright
boards/societies

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 How is the Work Going to Be Carried?
• Digitization work can be carried in two ways:
- in-house
- out-source

• A thorough consideration should be made on

merits and de-merits of each option

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 In-house Digitization Work
• Carrying out a digitization work in-house requires a
lot of resources such as

- Staff (who will be involved? Do they

have relevant knowledge and skills)

- Equipment (hardware; computers,

scanners etc and software; digital
library software; image, audio, video
editing software, OCR software etc).
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 Out-sourced Digitization Work
• Digitization work is a tedious job and requires
expertise and special skills, and when such skills
are not available within your organisation, an out-
sourcing option can be considered.
• Using specialists may take off the burden of
acquiring specialised equipment and software for
the job.
• This though may depend on availability of
individuals or firms that have capabilities of
handling your work.

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 Costing the Work – Digitization
• Digitization work must be properly budgeted for.
• Sources of funds for such work may be from within
the existing budgetary allocation or an external
sponsor
• If an in-house option is preferred, then it is a must
that all budgetary elements such as staff skills and
man hours, equipment, scanning are given serious
consideration
• If out-sourcing, quotes should be sourced

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 Work Plan – Digitization
• Any Digitization project should be well planned with
specific time lines and deliverables.
• Reasonable time should be devoted to scanning
and OCR because its very time-consuming.
• Ideally, the plan should be SMART (Specific,
Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely

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 End

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