A Course on the Design of Reliable Digital Systems

A graduate course on the design of reliable digital systems is described. One of the unique features of this course is the teaching of design methodologies. The concepts learned in class are solidified through a required course project where the students apply the techniques and the design methodologies studied. The project consists of developing a preliminary design of a highly reliable and fault-tolerant flight-control system for an aircraft. The students must perform numerous design tradeoffs and make design decisions to produce a system that meets the stringent requirements of the application. A second unique feature of this course is the use of numerous practical examples of the technology during the discussion of the design and analysis techniques.