Hardware Implementation of a Small System in Programmable Logic Arrays

Large Scale Integration, LSI, is the means by which digital circuits have achieved remarkable manufacturing cost reductions but, unfortunately, at the expense of higher engineering design costs. Programmable Logic Arrays, PLAs, exploit many of the benefits of LSI but without the high engineering design costs. This paper describes an experiment in the design and implementation of a small complex system in array logic. The IBM 7441 Buffered Terminal Control Unit was selected for this comparison because it is a small but complex terminal controller implemented in dual in-line packaged transistor logic, DIP-TL, with small to medium scale integration.