Rapid prototyping using field-programmable logic devices

Traditionally, undergraduates in electrical and computer engineering study the design and implementation of a simple computer and then develop their own designs. In recent years, computer design courses have for the most part taken a simulation-only approach. Rapid prototyping techniques and a new generation of large field-programmable logic devices (FPLDs) enabled an educational approach that combines modeling with hardware description languages (HDLs), extensive simulation, synthesis, and final verification on a hardware prototype. The author describes an undergraduate computer engineering curriculum using a rapid prototyping approach to simulate, synthesize, and implement digital system and computer architectures