Celebration and a Little Disappointment

4-Bit J-Input Logic Outline
A Lovely Ice Cream Cake
Happy Birthday to Me! Friday was filled with not only hard work but also a celebration. Right after the Science Center faculty lectures, my lab group surprised me with a chocolate-covered "Cookies and Cream" ice cream cake (and it was delicious) as well as lots of candy, limeade and a beautiful card. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Now back to work!

For the majority of the second week, I've been working on designing the 4x(4:1) multiplexer (mux) config and resolving issues in the switching between 16 channels by creating a 4-bit gray-code counter. On Friday, I was placing the last touches on the Logism simulation and checking if the output of the circuit matched that of the State Table, when Prof. Battat called me over. He showed me that he realized that we don't need a 4-Bit Gray Code Counter.... I had been working diligently for a whole week on a piece that we have ended up tossing away, just like that. Well, at least, I can say I grabbed the knowledge and can actually work with circuit simulations now.

4-Bit Gray Code Counter
2-Bit Counter with Output Table
After he brought it to my attention, I realized that a simple 2-bit binary code counter would indeed work. We had been going on the assumption that, since each pair of 4:1 muxes needed two inputs, a 4x(4:1) configuration would require four inputs. However, having four would mean multiple changes in signal patters and, hence, we would need gray code to resolve that issue. Surprisingly, having 2 inputs connected to each mux would have worked too and would eliminate the need for gray code. Prof. Battat showed me a Logism simulation 
he made for a 2-bit counter and it worked beautifully for counting 0-15. He also handed me a pile of papers (below) of all the work, e.g. state diagram, k-maps, circuit diagram, he had done on this in just a few hours. Now, my part is to actually draw out the circuit and geography of the components for tomorrow and Tuesday. 

The moral of the story? "Where it may take you three days to learn and experiment with a new subject, your professor learns it and teaches it back to you in mere hours...." Now, I really must get my Ph.D.


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