A New Digital System Course for Electrical Engineering

Cleveland State University, Cleveland OH

Investigators

Abstract

Engineering - Electrical (55) This project investigates a shift in the introductory digital systems course from the current focus on gate level design to a HDL (hardware description language), register-transfer level focus. The emphasis is placed on the fundamentals of current design methodologies and skills to utilize the latest high-density programmable devices and synthesis software tools. The PI is developing a textbook, a set of experiments, and a web site to provide a detailed coverage of the concepts, principles, and practices of register-transfer level design. Student surveys provide feedback on the content, organization, continuity of topics, and level of difficulty. Course instructors in the senior design course will assess the students' digital circuit design abilities and compare them to those of earlier students who had a traditional digital systems course. The PI is planning to present papers at education-oriented conferences, to prepare manuscripts for education journals, and to post complete lecture slide, class projects, and laboratory experiments on his web site to supplement the material in the developed textbook.