Lab 5: Combinational Logic-Adders and Subtractors

Objective(s):

• To describe the difference between combinational and sequential logic circuits.

• To describe the operation and the construction of binary adders and subtractors
• To design a hierarchical combinational circuit and simulate it using Logisim.

Outcome(s):

• The students are able to differentiate combinational and sequential logic circuits.
• The students are able to make binary adders and subtractors using logisim.

Part 1: Background Information

Combinational vs Sequential Circuits

Digital logic circuits can be classified into two main types: combinational and sequential. A
combinational circuit is a logic circuit that is made up of combinations of logic gates. The
application of inputs into combinational circuits generates the output instantaneously. Some
examples of typical combinational circuits are binary adders, subtractors, comparators, decoders,
encoders, multiplexers, and demultiplexers. All these digital components will be covered and
discussed practically starting from this lab.

A sequential circuit, on the other hand, is made up of a combinational circuit and memory
elements, called flip-flops. The outputs of the sequential circuits depend not only on the inputs
but also on the output of the memory elements. Some examples of sequential circuits are counters
and shift registers.

Hierarchical Design
Hierarchical design is a design technique in which pre-designed modules are used to build larger
ones. In this lab, you will hierarchically build the full adder using half adders. The full adder will
then be used to build a larger adder-subtractor circuit. Historically, in the field of digital design,
Small Scale Integrated circuits (SSI) are used to build Medium Scale Integrated circuits (MSI),
which in turn are used to build Large Scale Integrated circuits (LSI). LSI modules are finally used
to build Very Large Scale Integrated circuits (VLSI) and Ultra Large Scale Integrated circuits
(ULSI).

Binary Adders and Subtractors

Binary adders and subtractors are combinational circuits that can perform the operations of
addition and subtraction of binary numbers, respectively. In this lab, we will study and construct
various adder and subtractor circuits.

a) Half Adder (HA) Circuit

The combinational circuit that adds only two bits is called half adder.

Since there are two inputs (x and y), only four possible combinations of inputs can be applied.
These four possibilities, and their resulting Sum (S) and Carry (C) are shown in following truth
table.

X Y C S
0 0 0 0
0 1 0 1
1 0 0 1
1 1 1 0

From the truth table, we could get the Boolean expression of C and S as

C = x.y
S = x ⨁ y = x'.y + x.y'
Accordingly, the logic circuit of the half adder is drawn below.
b) Full Adder (FA) Circuit

Full Adder (FA) is a combinational circuit that adds three bits. It generates two outputs:
Sum (S) and carry (C). Full adders allow for the addition of multi-bit numbers. A Designer
just needs to provide a way for carries to propagate between bit positions.

The truth table of the full adder is as follow.

X Y z (Cin) Cout S
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 0 1
0 1 0 0 1
0 1 1 1 0
1 0 0 0 1
1 0 1 1 0
1 1 0 1 0
1 1 1 1 1

From the truth table, we could get the Boolean expression of Cout and S as

Cout = x' y Cin + x y' Cin + x y Cin' + x y Cin = x y + x Cin + y Cin

S = x' y' Cin + x' y Cin' + x y' Cin' + x y Cin = x ⨁ y ⨁ Cin

Accordingly, the logic circuit of the full adder is drawn below.

The previous figure also shows that the full adder could be built using half adders. By
comparing the full adder circuit to the half adder one, you could simply implement the full
adder circuit using half adders as follow

c) Adder-Subtractor Circuit
 The subtraction of two binary numbers can be done by taking the 2’s complement of the
subtrahend and adding it to the minued. The 2’s complement can be obtained by taking the 1’s
complement (i.e., inverting all the bits) and adding 1. For example, to perform A – B, we
complement the four bits of B, add them to their corresponding four bits of A, and add 1. The
simplest way to add a binary 1 is to insert it through the input carry.

An XOR gate could be used as an inverter if we place logic 1 at one of the inputs. This helps in
getting the 1’s complement of the subtrahend. Then, we add 1 to get the 2’s complement. The 2's
complement is finally added to the minued to get the final result of the subtraction.

The following figure shows the adder-subtractor circuit. The mode input M controls the operation.
When M=0, the circuit is an adder. Whereas, when M=1, the circuit becomes a subtractor.
Although the figure is for only four bits, this circuit can be cascaded for any number of inputs.

Note: During subtraction, if A ≥ B, the result is a positive number and the output carry is
equal to 1. If A < B, the subtraction gives a negative difference represented in the 2’s
complement format and the output carry is equal to 0. Therefore, during subtraction, the
carry actually represents the inversion of the borrow.

Part 2: Lab Proper

Designing a Half Adder using Basic Gates:

1. Launch Logisim and save the project by clicking Ctrl+S. The Save window will appear. As you will
do hierarchical design in this lab, the project should take the name of the top level. Therefore,
enter Adder subtractor in the File name and click Save.
2. Now, let's start to design the most inner module, the Half Adder (HA). From the project menu,
click on Add Circuit.
3. The Input Circuit Name window will appear. Enter HA as the name of the circuit and click OK.
4. A new module named HA is created for you and added to the explorer pane. The magnifying glass
over the HA indicates that it is the module that is currently viewed on the canvas.
5. Enter the circuit of the half adder.
 6. Check the operation of the HA module, either by using the poke tool or the combinational analysis
window. Take a screenshot of the circuit and include it in the data and result part of the lab report
together with the truth table.
7. Before using the half adder hierarchically in larger designs, let's adjust it appearance first. From
the project menu, click on Edit Circuit Appearance.
8. The module of the half adder will appear as a rectangle with two inputs and two outputs.
9. Enlarge the module and move input and output ports to proper locations.
10. From the toolbar, click on the Add text button (A). Then, click beside the two inputs and name
them x and y. Similarly, name the two outputs S and C, as shown below.

11. Finally, click on the HA module on the explorer pane. Then, in the attribute table, write HA beside
the Shared Label attribute. This would be the name of the module when used in largerdesigns.
Also, change the Shared Label Facing attribute to North.

12. You are completely done with the half adder. You are ready to use it to build the full adder circuit.
Before doing that, remember to save your work by clicking Ctrl+S.

Designing a Full Adder using Half Adders:

 1. From the Project menu, click on Add Circuit. In the Input Circuit Name window, name the new
circuit FA and click OK.
2. The new module is created for you in the explorer pane and an empty sheet is opened in the
canvas for it.
3. Build the FA using two Has
4. From the explorer pane, click on the HA module and insert two of them into the canvas.
5. From the toolbar, click on the OR gate button and insert one of it into the canvas. Change the
Number of Inputs attribute to 2.
6. Wire the circuit and check the operation of the FA module using poke tool or the combinational
analysis window. Take a screenshot of the circuit and include it in the lab report together with the
truth table.
7. Before using the full adder hierarchically in larger designs, let's adjust it appearance first. From
the project menu, click on Edit Circuit Appearance.
8. The module of the full adder will appear as a rectangle with three inputs and two outputs.
9. Enlarge the module and move input and output ports to proper locations.
10. From the toolbar, click on the Add text button (A). Then, click beside the three inputs and name
them x, y, and Cin. Similarly, name the two outputs S and C, as shown below.
11. Now, you successfully build the FA using HAs. Remember to save your work before hierarchically
use the FA to build the adder subtractor circuit.

Designing an Adder Subtractor using Full Adders and XORs

1. Now, we reach the top-level module, the adder subtractor. Therefore, in the explorer pane,
double clock on the main file.
2. Use for FAs and four XORs to build the adder subtractor circuit. Take a screenshot of the circuit to
include in the laboratory report.
3. To understand the benefit and the power of using the hierarchical design technique. Imagine
building the adder subtractor circuit using the traditional method of building the truth table and
minimizing the logic expression of the outputs. The 9-input truth table would have 512 rows and
the logic expression of the output would be very hard to minimize. In order to visualize this
complexity, use the combinational analysis window to see the truth table and the logic
expressions of the output. The following figure gives an example of the logic expression for C4.

4. Use the poke tool to simulate your circuit. Apply to following values though A's and B's and record
their corresponding values of S's and C4. Interpret your results (i.e., Explain why S and C have
these values). Write your answers in the lab report
 Addition (M=0) Subtraction (M=1)

A3A2A1A0 Ten = Eleven = Six = Ten = Eleven = Six =

(1010)2 (1011)2 (0110)2 (1010)2 (1011)2 (0110)2

B3B2B1B0 Six = Fourteen = Six = Six = Fourteen = Six =

(0110)2 (1110)2 (0110)2 (0110)2 (1110)2 (0110)2

C4S3S2S1S0

5. Now, let's use another convenient method when dealing with multiple related bits, like A's, B's
and S's. A common practice in the digital logic field is to combine these bits in a wire bundle, called
the bus. So, let's see how we could create these busses in Logisim.
6. From the Wiring folder in the explorer pane, click on Splitter and insert it into the canvas.

7. The splitter you just inserted will be used to create the bus of input A. Input A has four bits,
A3A2A1A0. Therefore, in the attribute table, change the Bit Width In attribute to 4. Similarly, change
the Fan Out attribute to 4 (i.e., the splitter would split the 4-bit bus into 4 separate wires).

8. From the toolbar, insert an input pin. In the attribute table, label it as A and change its Data Bits
attribute to 4.
9. The input pin should have extended in the canvas to have 4 bits.

10. Wire the new 4-bit port, A, to the left side of the splitter.
11. Remove the old input pin, A0, and wire bit 0 (i.e., the top right bit) of the splitter instead of it.
12. Repeat step 11 to remove input pins A1, A2, and A3 and connect bit 1, bit 2, and bit 3 of the
splitter instead of them.

13. Finally, insert two more splitters for bus B and bus S. For each bus, repeat step 6 to step 12. Change
the Facing attribute to the S bus to West instead of East. Your final circuit should appear as follow.
 14. Use the poke tool to practice simulating your final circuit and fill in the following table again.

Addition (M=0) Subtraction (M=1)

A3A2A1A0 Ten = Eleven = Six = Ten = Eleven = Six =

(1010)2 (1011)2 (0110)2 (1010)2 (1011)2 (0110)2

B3B2B1B0 Six = Fourteen = Six = Six = Fourteen = Six =

(0110)2 (1110)2 (0110)2 (0110)2 (1110)2 (0110)2

C4S3S2S1S0

Part 3: Post Lab Practice Simulation

Instructions: The answers from this part will be attached in the “answers to questions” part of the
laboratory report.

1. Design a 4-bit binary decrementer circuit using four half adders. Simulate the circuit using Logisim
to ensure that it works properly. Include your design and snapshots from Logisim to your report.