Using FPGAs in Lab Sessions

Abstract

Laboratory sessions are an integral part in teaching the analysis and design of digital circuits. For a long time students have used breadboards to implement digital circuits in laboratory sessions. Many students, especially computer science students find that working with breadboards does not connect to well to material covered in lectures. In this paper, we discuss the experience of using FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) instead of the classical breadboards in laboratory sessions. We find that using FPGAs students relate better to the course material.