A Survey of Digital Systems Curriculum and Pedagogy in Electrical and Computer Engineering Programs

Digital Systems is one of the basic foundational courses in Electrical and Computer Engineering. One of the challenges in designing and modifying the curriculum for the course is the fast pace of technology change in the area. TTL chips that were in vogue with students building physical circuits, have given way to new paradigms like FPGA based synthesis with hardware description languages such as VHDL. However, updating a course is not as simple as just changing the book, and changing the syllabus. A large amount of work needs to be done in terms of selecting the book that will accommodate the course, the device that should be used, the laboratory content, and even how much time needs to be dedicated for every topic. All these issues, and many more makes it hard to take the decision of updating the course. For that reason, this paper surveys the pedagogy and methodology that is used to teach the digital systems curriculum at different universities. The goal is that it will serve as a resource for faculty looking to update or revamp their digital systems curricula. Within the document they will find a comparative study by electrical and computer engineering program, a list of textbooks, and the devices most commonly used.Cockrell School of Engineerin

Digital signal processing: the impact of convergence on education, society and design flow

Design and development of real-time, memory and processor hungry digital signal processing systems has for decades been accomplished on general-purpose microprocessors. Increasing needs for high-performance DSP systems made these microprocessors unattractive for such implementations. Various attempts to improve the performance of these systems resulted in the use of dedicated digital signal processing devices like DSP processors and the former heavyweight champion of electronics design – Application Specific Integrated Circuits. The advent of RAM-based Field Programmable Gate Arrays has changed the DSP design flow. Software algorithmic designers can now take their DSP algorithms right from inception to hardware implementation, thanks to the increasing availability of software/hardware design flow or hardware/software co-design. This has led to a demand in the industry for graduates with good skills in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. This paper evaluates the impact of technology on DSP-based designs, hardware design languages, and how graduate/undergraduate courses have changed to suit this transition

Hardware description of a simplified 4-bit softcore processor with BCD capabilities

The objective of the work reported in this paper is to improve a 4-bit softcore processor previously designed in Verilog language, keeping its compact size. This processor was thought to be used as academic and didactic tool for teaching as computers architecture subject as digital circuits subject in the technology faculty of the Universidad Distrital. The new features include arithmetic instruction with input carry, BCD operations enabling, rotating instructions, implementation of input and output register banks, increase of the number of general purpose registers of the data memory, and the reduction of the execution clock cycles per instruction. Additionally, the assembler software was enabled to support macro-instructions to make easy the comprehension of some composed functions. As result, a very compact softcore processor was obtained, by means of a Verilog description done in a single file. This implementation occupies only the 2% of the medium-size FPGA used for the application, reaching a maximum possible working clock frequency of 929 Mhz

Virtual and Remote Laboratories for E-Learning Using EDA Tools

Virtual and Remote Laboratories for E-Learning Using EDA Tool

An FPGA Multiprocessor System for Undergraduate Study

We present our experiences using multiple soft processor cores on an FPGA to study advanced computer architecture at the undergraduate level. Our system instantiates multiple processor cores on a single FPGA device using the Altera Nios® II soft processor and associated CAD tools. With an easy to use development environment and powerful tools to quickly generate designs, an FPGA platform provides the necessary flexibility to quickly produce a working system. Students are able to easily modify and adapt their designs for a specific application. We demonstrate that multiprocessor systems can be developed, implemented and studied by undergraduate students due to the availability and accessibility of design tools and FPGA development boards. Further, these systems enhance the learning of multiprocessors and aptly compliment advanced computer architecture courses covering topics to include shared memory, synchronization, sequential consistency, and memory coherency

Teaching Creative Digital Hardware Design

yesEngineering undergraduates not only need to learn facts, but also how to be creative in the open-ended situations they will encounter in their professional careers. Our final year Honours module gives students a grounding in digital systems design, mainly using VLSI for design entry and simulation. The second half of our module is a design exercise, which has straightforward aspects, but which allows motivated students to undertake progressively open-ended investigations. Our educational framework is guided by recommendations of professional bodies promoting excellence and encouragement of creativity in engineering development. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd

A Project-based Approach to FPGA-aided Teaching of Digital Systems

This article shares experience and lessons learned in teaching course on programmable logic design at Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia This course is part of bachelor of engineering (electrical) degree program. Project- based approach is chosen to strengthen these students’ un- derstanding and practical skills. Each year’s project involves challenges for the students to solve by implementing digital system on an FPGA design board. Here, background and curriculum context of the course will be presented. The projects and their challenges will be discussed. Finally, lessons learned and future improvement on the student projects will be discussed. Index Terms—project-based learning, field programmable gate arrays, education, programmable logic design, hardware design languages, laboratories    

An environment for the automatic verification of digital circuits

Finalista del Premi Cercle Fiber al millor Projecte Final de Carrera (curs 2010-2011)English: The aim of this project is to implement a system for the automatic verification of digital circuits written in a high-level hardware description language (Verilog), to be potentially used to assist a electronic design automation course

Constructivist Multi-Access Lab Approach in Teaching FPGA Systems Design with LabVIEW

Embedded systems play vital role in modern applications [1]. They can be found in autos, washing machines, electrical appliances and even in toys. FPGAs are the most recent computing technology that is used in embedded systems. There is an increasing demand on FPGA based embedded systems, in particular, for applications that require rapid time responses. Engineering education curricula needs to respond to the increasing industrial demand of using FPGAs by introducing new syllabus for teaching and learning this subject. This paper describes the development of new course material for teaching FPGA-based embedded systems design by using ‘G’ Programming Language of LabVIEW. A general overview of FPGA role in engineering education is provided. A survey of available Hardware Programming Languages for FPGAs is presented. A survey about LabVIEW utilization in engineering education is investigated; this is followed by a motivation section of why to use LabVIEW graphical programming in teaching and its capabilities. Then, a section of choosing a suitable kit for the course is laid down. Later, constructivist closed-loop model the FPGA course has been proposed in accordance with [2- 4; 80,86,89,92]. The paper is proposing a pedagogical framework for FPGA teaching; pedagogical evaluation will be conducted in future studies. The complete study has been done at the Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Aleppo University

FPGA-tekniikan opetuksen kehittäminen

Digitaalitekniikan käytön yleistyminen teknisissä tuotteissa ja sovelluksissa yhä etene-vässä määrin tulee myös tekniikan alan korkeakoulutuksessa ottaa huomioon. Teknisissä tuotteissa digitaalitekniikkaa käytetään esimerkiksi älykkäissä säätöratkaisuissa sekä tuotannon automatisoinnissa, kuten robotiikassa. Digitaalitekniikkaa voidaan toteuttaa käyttäen mikroprosessoreita, mikrokontrollereita, signaaliprosessoreita, asiakaskohtaisia ja ohjelmoitavia logiikkapiirejä sekä kokonaisia piisirulle integroituja järjestelmiä. Tässä diplomityössä tarkastellaan FPGA-tekniikan opetusta Vaasan yliopiston automaa-tiotekniikan opintosuunnassa, tarkasteltavana kurssina AUTO1010 Digitaalitekniikan perusteet. FPGA-piirejä käytetään kurssin opetusalustana niiden hyötyjen, kuten rin-nakkaislaskennan vuoksi. Tarkoituksena on selvittää opetuksen mahdolliset kehityskoh-teet FPGA-tekniikan opetuksessa. Kurssin harjoitustyönä keväällä 2014 toteutettiin valourut FPGA:lla. Valourkujen toteutuksessa käytettiin laitevalmistajan suunnitteluoh-jelmaa, ledejä, vastuksia, koekytkentälevyjä ja kuulokemikrofonia. Toteutuksessa käy-tettiin VHDL-laitteistokuvauskieltä. Kurssin luennoilla ja laskuharjoituksissa käytiin tarvittava teoriaosuus lävitse, tarkoituksena antaa riittävästi pohjatietoa harjoitustyön suorittamiseksi. Harjoitustyön suorituksessa järjestettiin kolme ohjauskertaa, josta vii-meisimmällä toteutettiin palautekysely koskien kurssin ja harjoitustyön suoritusta. Kerättyä palautekyselyn tuloksia verrattiin muihin samankaltaisiin tutkimuksiin. Palau-tekyselyn ja vertailujen perusteella voidaan sanoa, että kurssin FPGA-tekniikan opetus on hyvällä tasolla, eikä merkittäviä muutoksia kurssin järjestelyyn tarvitse tehdä. Toteu-tetun palautekyselyn tuloksista julkaistiin myös konferenssiartikkeli. Tulevaisuudessa digitaalitekniikan opetukseen voisi ottaa mukaan SoC-järjestelmät, joissa ohjelmisto ja laitteisto ovat integroituja samalle piirille käyttöjärjestelmän (Linux) kanssa.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format