Introducing Field Programmable Gate Arrays with deeds projects

Abstract

The introduction to the use of Field Programmable Gate Arrays in a first year course of digital design is nowadays advisable. A self-developed tool that integrates FPGA configuration and testing within Deeds, the simulation suite upon which the course is based, makes the full process straightforward and compatible with the beginners' skills. The tutorials that accompany the students' projects provide step-by-step instructions for their execution while, at the same time, serving as a synthetic introduction to Finite State Machines used stand-alone and as system controller and microcomputer programming and interfacing.