[finitestateuni]

I used all of those components in my undergrad less than 5 years ago. I can’t remember what we used a 555 timer for, but we built calculators, EKGs, and AM radios among other things in the labs. At the time I was mad that we were using TTL logic when it seemed so out of date, but when we moved on to FPGAs I was grateful for the physical intuition I gained from building the 74xx projects.

[kragen]

for undergrad labs ttl has a big advantage over cmos, it doesn't die when you touch it after walking across the floor