Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!oddjob!tank!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!a.cs.uiuc.edu!p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies From: gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu Newsgroups: comp.edu Subject: Re: Computer Organization Text Needed Message-ID: <82400012@p.cs.uiuc.edu> Date: 7 Sep 88 03:39:00 GMT References: <110@ms3.UUCP> Lines: 26 Nf-ID: #R:ms3.UUCP:110:p.cs.uiuc.edu:82400012:000:1071 Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies Sep 6 22:39:00 1988 I thought another use for Karnaugh maps was to ensure that transition "hazards" were covered (when you switch from one input generating a "1" to another input generating the "1", you can suppress a spurious signal spike by covering the transition in the karnaugh map). As Anita Bryant would say, "Karnaugh maps -- They're not just for minimization any more!" ------------- As far as Karnaugh maps v.s. computer organization: Perhaps the best and most satisfying course of my entire life was a 5 hour "Computer Organization" course where we started by learning boolean logic, karnaugh maps, logic systems, etc, then built a trivial finite state machine, and then enhanced it ten times until we had a microcodeable 68000-type CPU. Then we wrote microcode for the last 3 weeks of class. Unfortunately, the book (which I treasure) is an unpublished set of lecture notes (6.004) from MIT. Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois 1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801 ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu UUCP: {uunet,ihnp4,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies