Cascading and Combinatorial Circuits - Part Zero of The Logic Series
Come on, you didn't think there could be a web video series about computer logic and it WOULDN'T start with zero? What kind of computer engineer would I be if I didn't start with zero?
Anyway, learning to design "Cascaded Circuits" (where signals pass through successive gates like a waterfal would "cascade" through different rocks on the way down) is the bread-and-butter of computer engineering. Designing combinatorial circuits efficiently reduces critical paths (the slowest part of a particular circuit) and helps improve throughput of a computer. When you combine the two, you get a well-designed and elegant circuit that runs very quickly.
Here is an overview of how go from a list of requirements for a circuit, given certain inputs, and how to achieve the desired outputs based on those parameters.