03-28-2016, 02:47 PM
I also want to chime in on things here:
There generally are two aspects people like about redstone logic, building it, and the theory for building and using it. The ones who like to build in general come up with neat compact, faster designs from existing components or even new ones... and the theory minded builders like creating an IS, know concepts from computer science or electrical engineering to make exotic components. Im not sorting people into boxes here. Its just the time you decide something is boring and/or out of your league.
Maybe that student that build a RCA ALU just wants to know more about how cpus do stuff in general and dont feel like building a alu that probably already exists. You cant make a cpu in an hour (i could only built ROM, counter, part of instruction decoder, and inverters for the alu in that timeframe) and if a student has to show it on school you dont know if its really their own creation.
That is why i do not see anything inherently wrong about people building RCA ALU's. I just give them ZERO (0) points for building that alu everyone knows all too well. So thats why the questions are generally harder. If you as a mod aren't asking questions like "do -3 + -1" or "How do control lines !A and FC create XOR?" or "How would you check for two values being equal?" (which says alot about that student's abilities) you should reconsider doing trials.
NO student should pass on 3+5 / 2-5 / 3 AND 6 / what two logic gates does a half adder have? (and not asking what its significance is afterwards) with that alu.
There generally are two aspects people like about redstone logic, building it, and the theory for building and using it. The ones who like to build in general come up with neat compact, faster designs from existing components or even new ones... and the theory minded builders like creating an IS, know concepts from computer science or electrical engineering to make exotic components. Im not sorting people into boxes here. Its just the time you decide something is boring and/or out of your league.
Maybe that student that build a RCA ALU just wants to know more about how cpus do stuff in general and dont feel like building a alu that probably already exists. You cant make a cpu in an hour (i could only built ROM, counter, part of instruction decoder, and inverters for the alu in that timeframe) and if a student has to show it on school you dont know if its really their own creation.
That is why i do not see anything inherently wrong about people building RCA ALU's. I just give them ZERO (0) points for building that alu everyone knows all too well. So thats why the questions are generally harder. If you as a mod aren't asking questions like "do -3 + -1" or "How do control lines !A and FC create XOR?" or "How would you check for two values being equal?" (which says alot about that student's abilities) you should reconsider doing trials.
NO student should pass on 3+5 / 2-5 / 3 AND 6 / what two logic gates does a half adder have? (and not asking what its significance is afterwards) with that alu.