Teach Digital Design with FPGAs using a remote Terasic DE1-SoC!

In this laboratory, students can learn how to work with Hardware Design Languages: VHDL, Verilog, or SystemVerilog. Then they can test their code in a real Terasic DE1-SoC FPGA. The FPGA has a set of components and peripherals already in place, such as 10 red LEDs, 6 7-segment displays and multiple clocks. In addition, you will have access to 10 virtual switches and 4 virtual buttons that you can use in your design and that you will be able to interact with when controlling the real hardware. This way, you will be able to turn on and off the switches or press the buttons and see how your design behaves. The boards are located in different universities and institutions around the world, as you will see when using each board.

Teach Hardware design with FPGAs using Terasic DE2-115!

In this laboratory, you teach learn how to program using two Hardware Design Languages: VHDL or Verilog, and test students code in a real Terasic DE2-115 FPGA. The FPGA has a set of components already place, such as 18 red LEDs, 9 green LEDs, 8 7-segment displays, multiple clocks. In addition, you will have access to 18 virtual switches and 4 virtual buttons that you can use in your design and that you will see when interacting with the real hardware. This way, you will be able to turn on and off the switches or press the buttons and see how your design behaves. The boards are located in different universities, as you will see when using each board.

Teach Hardware design with real FPGAs!

In this laboratory, you can teach how to program using three Hardware Design Languages: VHDL, Verilog or SystemVerilog, and test your code in one of our multiple boards available. Every FPGA has a set of components already place, such as 10 LEDs, 6 7-segment displays or multiple clocks. In addition, you will have access to 10 virtual switches and 4 virtual buttons that you can use in your design and that you will see when interacting with the real hardware.

Whenever you synthesize your code, you will be assigned to a particular board (such as Terasic DE2-115 or Terasic DE1-SoC or others), and you will be able to send your code to one of the available boards and to turn on and off the switches or press the buttons and see how your design behaves. The boards are located in different universities, as you will see when using each board.

This laboratory will let you learn basic Digital Electronics.

You will be able to design Combinational Systems, use Boole Algebra, create VK diagrams, and try the systems that you create in real remote hardware (Intel FPGAs).

The Digital Trainer laboratory is designed towards students that are starting with digital logic, truth tables and Boole's Algebra.

During the activity, the student sees an Intel FPGA that implements a series of simple truth tables. The student can interact with the FPGA devices to vary the inputs to the system through switches, and observe the outputs through LEDs. The challenge is to determine which logical operator the FPGA implements in each case (e.g. AND, NAND...).

The activity is designed to be relatively simple and straightforward, but at the same time to be engaging for the students. It is designed in a game-like style, and it is based in real hardware (FPGAs). That way, it is not only useful to introduce and obtain familiarity with digital logic, but also it allows students to start seeing the future uses of that knowledge, interacting in a superficial way with FPGA devices, of the same kind that are used in industry.

Interaction with the FPGA devices does not add complexity, since students don't need to program them; they already implement a black box logic (which is precisely the point of the activity).

The laboratory is originally based in an activity that Intel Corporation frequently conducts in its seminars, both hands-on and remote, using their Intel DE1-SoC, Intel DE2-115, or other types of FPGAs.