A course in digital system design using unified E2LP platform

Abstract

© 2015 MIPRO. Computer engineering education has a strong dependence on laboratory work. Teaching students in the lab does not always consist of teaching the required course material, but also of a vast number of tutorials on different platforms. In many cases, these tutorials take significant amount of time which could be better spent doing actual course material. For that reason, E2LP project has developed a platform to be used in multiple courses, covering majority of the computer engineering curriculum. This paper presents a first step in the curriculum - a course in digital system design with laboratory exercises which are implemented on E2LP platform. The platform not only gives students hands-on experience with design and verification of digital systems, but it also provides a bridge between hardware and software because using the same platform in future courses allows students to re-use their results from previous courses and continue building their knowledge. First impression of students is positive about the experience with the platform and their feeling of usefulness of the course for their career.