Category: Teaching

Apr 30 2019

About timing diagrams of Moore finite state machines

About timing diagrams of Moore finite state machines Finite state machines (FSMs) in the context of digital electronics are circuits able to generate a sequence of signals (i.e. outputs) that react according to the current state of the system and the values of input signals. The goal of this post is to explain how to …

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Mar 30 2019

Fast binary conversion – Part II

[Fast binary conversion – part I] In this post we continue talking about fast binary conversion, this time focusing on signed numbers, in particular two’s complement (2C) numbers .  We introduced binary in a previous post (Sinistar), and two’s complement was only briefly tackled: ” In 2C’s representation, the most significant bit (the one most …

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Feb 24 2019

Fast binary conversion – Part I

Binary is the basis of digital systems and it is important to be fluent when it comes to obtain the decimal value of a binary number. In this post we will start dealing with fast binary to decimal conversion for numbers up to 16 bits. This will be handy if you work in the domain …

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Nov 06 2018

Sinistar: the arcade of the eternal youth

There is nothing like finding an arguably fun example to support any of the arid concepts populating the fields of digital electronics, computing and signal processing. Some time ago, I came across a fantastic video published by the IEEE Spectrum Magazine (Five Infamous Arcade-Game Glitches), devoted to programming mistakes (i.e. glitches) in arcade videogames: Asteroids …

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Sep 05 2018

(RetroMadrid2018) 4- and 8-bit pioneers: the creation of the microprocessor [the talk I couldn’t give]

(Also available in Spanish. Use the language switch) Please find a video (in Spanish) of a talk I planned to give in RetroMadrid 2018 (a Spanish event for retrocumputing), but that eventually I got sick and I could not attend. The talk covers the following points: Review of my previous talk (history of 6502) in …

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