Using Hd Ls In An Introduction To Digital Electronics Course

The gap between digital electronics as taught in the academic world and digital electronics as it is practiced in industry has widened in the last few years. One aspect of that gap is the use of HDLs in industry. While HDLs are growing in their use in industry, few courses in digital electronics systematically teach students how to design with HDLs. This paper reports on the use of both Verilog and VHDL as a central feature of the digital electronics course at Pacific Lutheran University. Both languages have been taught at different times over the last few years. Initially, Verilog was selected over VHDL because of its close connection to C, which many of the students have used in other classes and because of the close connection between schematics and low level Verilog code. Now, the course is moving towards increasing use of VHDL. The paper outlines the need for HDLs in the introductory digital electronics course and explores the advantages and disadvantages of both Verilog and VHDL. The paper also reports on the the approach used to introduce HDLs to the students and the development of projects requiring HDLs. The results both in terms of student success in the class and reports from students who have graduated are summarized.