CSCI 2150
Test 1 -- Study Guide

The table below lists the assigned reading and some additional resources you might find helpful to study for Test 1.  The best place to look for sample problems is the archive of old tests. They are the most accurate representation of what you might see on your test. You can also find problems at the end of each chapter of the assigned reading.

As for the outside resources, the Johns Hopkins University Circuit Builder is a Java simulator that allows you to build a digital circuit and calculate the truth table. It begins by asking for the number of inputs and the number of outputs. The inputs corresponds to the number of inputs on the left side of a truth table. (In our case, it has been A, B, C, etc.) The number of outputs corresponds to our X. I'd just put 1 for the number of outputs. You can drag-n-drop gates and wire them just like they appear in your hand-drawn circuits. Once you've completed a circuit, press "compute" and it will give you a truth table.

As for the test itself, it is important to note that:

As for the reading identified in the table below, it refers to the chapters you can download from the notes page.

Topic Reading Additional Resources
General digital system and signal concepts 1.0 through 1.3  
Digital signals and binary numbers 1.4 through 2.4 Binary Finger Counting might be a helpful resource. I have also added a Flash 6 demonstration of converting binary to decimal.
Representing analog values with digital patterns 2.5 and 2.6  
Gray codes 2.9  
Binary representations and arithmetic 2.7 through 3.3 Get additional information from the CS Departments at Virginia Tech or Case Western Reserve University. Also look at VT CS -- Binary Arithmetic - Addition for binary addition.
More binary arithmetic concepts 3.4 through 3.8  
Logic gates 4.1 through 4.3  
Combinational logic and boolean algebra 4.4 through 5.3 Johns Hopkins University Circuit Builder -- Set the number of inputs to 2, 3, or 4 to make your circuit and set the number of outputs to 1. Clicking on "Compute" generates the truth table.
Laws of boolean algebra 5.4 through 5.7