Computation Theory in a Digital Systems Course

1 Pong P. Chu, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115, [email protected] Abstract  Programmable devices and EDA (Electronic Design Automation) software tools are widely used to design today’s digital systems. Many introductory digital systems courses are aware of the trend and integrate the technology, especially HDL (Hardware Description Language) and synthesis software, into their curriculums. Introducing basic concepts of computation theory, including computability and algorithm complexity, can help students to understand the capability and fundamental limitations of the software and thus to utilize it in a more efficient manner. The computation theory will also provide a new perspective and shed light on many issues encountered in digital design.