Teaching low-power design with an FPGA-based hands-on and remote lab

This paper describes a project carried out at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University to teach low-power digital design structures in a laboratory. Low-power design has become one of the most essential constraints in digital systems, especially in portable devices. For this purpose, low-power design is a topic addressed in electrical and computer curricula, but it also requires applications in a laboratory. Therefore, this project focuses on preparing students for current trends in low-power design by examining realistic applications of its basic theories and principles, either hands-on or remotely. The laboratory´s experiments use a field programmable gate array (FPGA) as a design platform for implementing the students´ digital designs. This contribution reports on our first experiences in teaching low-power design in the lab. This paper focuses on the educational impact on students regarding the following: (1) overall objectives in the laboratory, (2) experimental exercises with low-power techniques, and (3) using educational FPGA boards and the EduPow board. The EduPow board is a developed hands-on board at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University that is relatively specific on using various signal image-processing applications to directly observe the power dissipation of a student´s digital algorithm. Our assessment of the low-power design lab shows that the requirements and objectives of this project are fairly well satisfied. In addition, students´ feedback indicates that using the EduPow board is more attractive and motivational in their work.