FPGA Platform Based Digital Design Education教程.pdfVIP

International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies - CompSysTech’08 FPGA Platform Based Digital Design Education Dmitri Mihhailov, Margus Kruus and Alexander Sudnitson Abstract: This paper gives an overview of how the FPGA (field-programmable gate array) technology is integrated into digital design educational process at Tallinn University of Technology (TUT). Paper focuses on the set of laboratory exercises introduced for “Advanced Digital Design” (IAY0080) course taught to postgraduate students, covering equipment, software and methodology, as well as plans for future improvements. Key words: FPGA (field-programmable gate array), FPGA-based development boards, digital design education. INTRODUCTION With the constant growth of integration level, todays circuits contain way over million of gates. However, this also makes circuit validation more sophisticated. Digital system development usually requires fabrication of a test prototype. While prototype itself turns out to be quite expensive, the significant delays required for its fabrication are also introduced. Furthermore, the prototype is made fairly late in the development cycle, as the entire design must be specified first. Debugging also becomes more complicated and takes longer to execute. FPGA technology promises to help in overcoming these problems. FPGA-based development boards are both low-cost and portable. Reprogrammability of FPGAs makes it possible not only to implement and verify the full design itself, but also to build early prototypes of the subcircuits using the same development board. This flexibility is particularly valuable if the system is likely to be modifie