Incorporating programming languages for enhancing the learning process of sequential logic circuit design

Abstract

Logic circuits can generally be classified into two categories, combinational and sequential logic circuits. In the sequential circuit design, although it is easy to construct a state transition table from state transition diagram, creating an excitation table according to memory type is a very laborious and time-consuming task. There are several software-based applications and hardware description languages to describe the structure and behavior of electronic circuits. This will take more time and persistence much like learning any other skill. Computer science degrees include courses focused mainly on programming languages. There's a strong case to be made for use of skills acquired in programming courses to shorten the learning curve. Thus, this work has proposed a method for the implementation of the circuit only the state equations of the sequential circuit without dealing with excitation tables. This allows to model the behavior of circuit through buttonbox, checkbox, textbox etc. which are basic elements of the graphical user interface based programming language. The questionnaire was applied to assess the change in the student's learning activity and perceptions of the proposed method. The results provide that this method is an effective and engaging way of teaching the sequential circuit design.