Ph.D. Candidacy Exam Syllabi

Communications

Suggested Texts

1. Sklar, B., Digital Communications: Fundamentals and Applications, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice Hall, 1989, Chapters, 4, 7,9.
2. Lin, S and D.J. Costello, Error Control Coding: Fundamentals and Applications, Prentice-Hall, 1983.
3. Ziemer, R.E. and R.L. Peterson, Digital Communications and Spread Spectrum Systems, MacMillan, 1985.

Computers

There are two options: Operating Systems (Option 1) and Computer Networks (Option 2). The following three topics are common for both options.

Syllabi

(1) COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE

• Arithmetic
  • Number Representation (sign-magnitude, complement, floating point).
  • Arithmetic operations.
• Processor
  • Structure (instruction, execution units, registers, datapaths)
  • Parallelism (look-ahead, pipelines, superscalar architectures)
  • Instruction Sets (CISC vs. RISC)
  • Control and microprogramming (vertical, horizontal)
• Memory Organization
  • Memory Hierarchy
  • Virtual Memory (segments and pages)
  • Memory Allocation and Management
  • Cache
• Input Output
  • Interrupts
  • Direct Memory Access
  • I/O Processors
• Architecture
  • Introduction to Pipelining and Vector Processing, SIMD, MIMD
  • Architectures, Interconnection Networks, Multiprocessor Operating Systems.
  • Instruction-level Parallelism and Thread-level Parallelism.

(2) DIGITAL DESIGN

• Combinational Logic
  • Boolean Algebra, Minimization - Karnaugh Maps, Quinn-McCluskey, Logic Families
• Sequential Logic
  • Memory Elements, Sequential Machines (minimization, state assignment, synchronous, asynchronous design, hazards.

(3) VLSI

• MOS Digital Circuits, dynamic logic, DC and AC design, circuit parasitics.
• Structured VLSI Design
• Design Options: Full Custom, Standard Cells, MPGA, FPGA
• Design for testability
• Using VHDL for modeling and synthesis

Candidates should select one of the following options.

OPTION 1: OPERATING SYSTEMS

• Overview (functions of Operating Systems, types of Operating Systems, Structure of Operating Systems.
• Processes, Process Communication and Synchronization (message passing, communicating sequential processes, critical sections, semaphores, monitors).
• Filesystems (Organization, abstract user interface, hierarchical structure, directories and files).
• Deadlocks (detection, avoidance, prevention).

OPTION 2: COMPUTER NETWORKS

• The physical layer: transmission media, data encoding, communication interface, multiplexing.
• Data link control: flow control, error control.
• Circuit and packet switching, and ATM.
• Congestion control.
• LAN technology and systems.
• Internet protocols and operations.
• Transport protocols.

Suggested Texts

1. Hennessy, J., & D.A. Patterson, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, Morgan Kaufman Publishers, third edition, 2003 (Chs 1 - 8)
2. Katz, R.H., Contemporary Logic Design, Benjamin/Cummings Publishing, 1994, (All of book except Chs 9 & 10)
3. M.J.S. Smith, Application-Specific Integrated Circuits, Addison Wesley, 1997 (Chapters 1, 2, 10, 12, 14).

Option 1: Operating Systems

4. Stallings, William, Operating Systems, Fourth Edition, Prentice Hall, 2002, (Ch. 1 to Ch. 12)

Option 2: Computer Networks

5. W. Stallings, Data & Computer Communication, Prentice-Hall, Sixth Edition, 2000 (All chapters except Chapters 18 and 19)

Electromagnetics, Microwaves and Optics

Suggested Texts

1. Pozar, David M., Microwave Engineering, Addison-Wesley, 1990.
2. Balanis, Constantine A., Advanced Engineering Electromagnetics, John Wiley and Sons, 1989.
3. Gowar, John, Optical Communication Systems, Second Edition, Prentice-Hall, 1993.

Electronics

ELECTRONIC DEVICES (semiconductor theory and devices)

• Electronic properties of semiconductors including basic understanding of the conducting mechanism
• Structure and operation of p-n junctions and Schottky barrier diodes
• Structure and operations of transistors including bipolar transistors and
• FETs
• Basic understanding of integrated circuits
• Basic understanding of light absorption and emission in simple devices
• Photonic devices (solar cells, photodetectors, LEDs laser diodes)

Suggested Text

1. Shur, S.M., Physics of Semiconductor Devices, Prentice Hall, 1990.

ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS (network theory and nonlinear devices)

• Characterization of two and three terminal nonlinear devices
• Linearisation of nonlinear circuits and their representations
• Network analysis with dependent sources
• Simple circuits with transistors and other nonlinear devices
• Theory and application of Operational Amplifiers
• Analog active filters

Suggested Text

1. Savent, Roden and Carpenter, Electronic Design, Circuits and Systems, Benjamin/Cummings, 1991

Power

Suggested Texts

1. Dewan, S.B. and A. Straughen, Power Semiconductor Circuits, 1st. edition Wiley-Interscience Publication, 1975.
2. Slemon, G.R. and A. Straughen, Electric Machines, 1st. edition, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1982.

POWER SEMICONDUCTOR CIRCUITS

• Circuits with Switches and Diodes Chapter 2
• Power Semiconductor Switches Chapter 3
• AC Voltage Controllers Chapter 4 (4.1 to 4.4 only)
• DC to DC Converters (Choppers) Chapter 6
• Controlled Rectifiers Chapter 5
• Inverters Chapter 7

ELECTRIC MACHINES

• Magnetic Systems Chapter 1
• Transformers Chapter 2
• Direct Current Machines Chapter 4
• Induction Machines Chapter 5
• Synchronous Machines Chapter 6 (Section 6.3 not included)

Software Engineering

Suggested Texts

1. Sommerville, A.I., Software Engineering, 5th. edition, Addison-Wesley, 1996.
2. Amoroso, B.E., Fundamentals of Computer Security Technology, Prentice-Hall, 1994.
3. Darrel, C.I., Developing Distributed and E-commerce Applications, Addison-Wesley, 2002.

Topics: The Ph.D. candidacy exam is based on 6 topics covering the foundation of software engineering, four of which are compulsory and two optional.

The following topics are compulsory:

• Software processes and software project management (chap 3, 22-25/text 1): software development processes and models; workforce management, cost estimation, quality management, and process improvement.
• Requirements engineering (chap 5, 6/text 1): software requirements capture, elicitation, analysis, modeling and validation; requirements and design specification languages and techniques.
• Software Architecture (chap 10, 11, 13, 14/text 1): architectural design and models, specialized architectures (distributed systems architectures, real-time architectures, fault-tolerant architectures etc), design with reuse (component-based development, design and architectural patterns etc.).
• Quality Assurance (chap 19-21/text 1): Verification and validation planning, metrics and workbenches; inspections, testing and formal validation approaches.

Candidates should choose two additional topics consistent with their research areas from the following list:

• Critical software systems design (chap 16, 17, 18/text 1): availability and reliability, safety system specification and design, fault-tolerance.
• Software Evolution (chap 26-29/text 1): legacy systems, software change and re-engineering, configuration management.
• Distributed Software Systems (all the chapters in text 3): distributed object architectures and standards, middleware systems, client/server transaction processing.
• Computer security and Cryptography (all the chapters in text 2): basic encryption techniques and algorithms, authentication protocols, analysis of cryptographic protocols, fundamental security models, security risks analysis, contemporary security technologies (intrusion detection, firewall systems, biometrics, copyright protection etc.).

Systems, Signal Processing and Control

Suggested Texts

1. Ogata, K., Modern Control Engineering, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, 1990
2. Peebles, Jr., P.Z., Probability, Random Variables, and Random Signal Principles, McGraw Hill. 199?, Chapters 1-7, 8.0-8.5, and 9
3. Antoniou, A., Digital Filters: Analysis, Design and Applications, McGraw Hill, 1993, Chapters 1-10 and 13.