A WWW facilitated rapid system prototyping class

Abstract

A Rapid System Prototyping course was developed in the Penn State EE Department under the auspices of our Electronics Manufacturing pilot project. Our course emphasizes design methodology, techniques, and practical prototyping tradeoffs (design time-cost-speed-power-area) as applied to the entire electronic system design hierarchy (system-module-chip circuit). A major goal of the class is to provide senior and entry graduate students experience with a design experience using a range of techniques and methodologies for rapid prototyping of electronic systems. The course was facilitated by extensive use of WWW resources; all course "handouts", tutorials, homework assignments, and reference materials were provided to students on the CEDCC Web server.