CMPEN 270 Lab Manual

CMPEN 270 Lab Manual

Outline:

There are 8 laboratory exercises planned for the semester; each exercise consists of one or two sessions in the lab.

1.  The lab assignment for each session will be posted on ANGEL one week before the lab day.

2.  You need to check ANGEL, under the Lesson’s tab for the Lab Assignment, download, read entire lab, & perform pre-lab portion prior to the actual lab meeting.

3.  Supplementary materials and information will be also made available on ANGEL

4.  Students will work in teams of two. However, each student should be responsible for meeting all the requirements of the course.

Pre-Lab:

1.  Before coming to the lab, you need to read the entire week's lab assignment and understand the objectives.

2.  You need to do this a couple of days in advance in order to be able to get your questions answered in time for lab.

3.  Each laboratory assignment has a prerequisite task, “called a pre-lab”, which must be done before you come to lab.

4.  The pre-lab is intended to ensure that you have thought about and prepared for the lab exercise. You will not be able to finish the lab on time if you do not have the necessary calculations, programs, and schematics ready before you come to lab!

5.  I will review your pre-labs at the beginning of the first session of each new lab assignment.

6.  Your pre-lab work grade is a group grade and will be based on your groups pre-lab submissions.

Lab Report:

1.  After completing each lab exercise, each group is expected to submit a typed final report.

2.  This report will normally be due at the beginning of the next lab period (i.e. one week after the end of the lab).

3.  No report will be accepted after the due date without a valid excuse. The format of your final report must conform to the specification described on the following page.

4.  Lab reports need to be written in 3rd person. (Ex The project team concluded that the lab results were valid. In contrast to how not to write the same thing: My lab partners & I agreed that the test was valid).

Lab Report Format:

Cover Sheet

Below is the format for the cover sheet. Note, you must include the scoring rubric and basis for evaluation. Space out to fill the complete page.

Laboratory #6

Implementation of a Sequential Digital Circuit

Perpared by: Sue Student and Joe Student

Course: CMPEN 270

Section: 001

Prepared: November 22, 2020

Instructor: Dr. Coulston

Evaluation:

Percentage / Score
Purpose / 10
Procedure / 20
Results / 50
Conclusions / 10
PreLab / 10

In each section the evaluated based on:

·  Correctness – the results and methods are correct.

·  Grammar – the writing uses proper English.

·  Technical writing - the writing conform to accepted technical writing standards.

·  Logic – the exposition is presented in a logical coherent order.

·  Completeness – the exposition covers all the necessary points.

·  Concise – does not introduce unnecessary topics into discussion.

·  Thoroughness – the writing explores and explains the details of the assignment.

Purpose

The purpose is a summary of the activities to be performed in the lab. It includes a description of the input, output and behavior of the component being designed. The steps involved in the development of the hardware realization should be included. Finally, if the component is to be realized on hardware, then the method of supplying the input and displaying the output should be explained.

Procedure

The procedure is your plan of attack to achieve the purpose of the lab. In terms of wording tense, it talks about what will be done. You should list the major steps needed to satisfy the requirements of the laboratory exercise. Things like “Write a truth table.”, “Solve the kmap.”, “Write the VHDL code describing the circuit.”, and “Run the testbench.” are the right resolution. Do not describe button pushes in the software. The first step will almost always be “Read and understand the problem statement.” Finally, you should briefly describe the strategy to achieve these objectives. For example, if you are running a testbench then describe how you will identify errors and how they will be approached.

Results

This is the main section of the report where you detail your results. This section should exactly follow the order in the procedure section, showing the results of your work for each item in the procedure. In terms of wording tense, it talks about what was done.

Figures, art work which contains a picture, are always followed by a caption which reads “Figure 5:” followed by a caption which described, in a single sentence, the piece of art. The first figure is numbered “1” with each subsequent figure given the next consecutive number. Note that the label “Figure 5” is bold, while the text in the caption is not.

Listings, snippets of code, are always followed by a caption which reads “Listing 2:” followed by a caption which described, in a single sentence, what the code does. The first listing is numbered “1” with each subsequent listing given the next consecutive number. Only include “code snippets”, fragments of the overall file, which you actually discuss in the body of your report. Finally, you should provide lines numbers in the left margin of the listing so that you can easily draw the reader’s attention to specific portions of the listing. Note that the label “Listing 5” is bold, while the text in the caption is not.

Tables, tabular listings of variables, are always followed by a caption which reads “Table 2:” followed by a caption which described, in a single sentence, what the table describes. The first table is numbered “1” with each subsequent table given the next consecutive number. Note that the label “Table 5” is bold, while the text in the caption is not.

Equations are always put in their own “paragraph”, centered on the page, followed by their equation number in parenthesis. The first equation is numbered “(1)” with each subsequent equation given the next consecutive number.

Every Figure, Table, Listing or Equation (hence forth referred to as “art work”) must be reference in the text of the results section before it’s displayed.

A good heuristic is that each step of the procedure should generate one piece of art work. If your procedure steps require several pieces of art, break the step into smaller pieces. Conversely, if a piece of art covers several steps of the procedure, then combine some of the procedure steps together.

The results section must be written in complete English sentences. You must explain, briefly and perhaps incompletely, how each piece of art work was generated. In most cases this will require references to previously displayed figures. For example, a SOPmin equation is derived from a truth table by solving the associated Kmap. If a piece of art work does not have an explanation of how it was generated, then it should not be included in the report.

The relevant tables and schematics which appear in your pre-lab must be copied, in a corrected form, into the results section – inclusion in the pre-lab does not constitute inclusion in the results section. You can take scans or pictures of schematics in your Prelab and include them as Figures in the body of the results section. Do not do this with truth tables. Art work must be included in-line in the body of the report; the appendix is not to be used for art work.

Conclusion

The conclusion should describe the state of the implementation described in the introduction. This may be a single sentence. The conclusion should also highlight:

·  Technical problems encountered

·  New software tools used

·  New design methodologies learned

If the lab does not work you need to offer possible reasons why.

Pre-Lab

Append the group’s initialed pre-lab report as an appendix to your final report.