Digital Design Course Using Deeds in Finland
(by Giuliano Donzellini and Domenico Ponta)
The course, “Introduction to Digital Design Using Deeds Simulation Suite”, was organized by Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Finland), within the program of the ICT Summer School 2017. The course was conducted from August 1st to 5th, six hours per day by Prof. Domenico Ponta and Prof. Giuliano Donzellini of the University of Genoa in the Leppävaara campus in the city of Espoo (Helsinki). Seven international students students and Mr. Timo Leinonen, lecturer from Metropolia, attended the course.
The course was targeted to students with a basic understanding of Boolean algebra and combinational and sequential circuits and was centered on:
- Analysis and design of combinational and sequential digital networks.
- Sequential systems modelled using finite state machines.
- Digital systems structured as data-path and controller modules.
- The use of Deeds.
- The development by students of an individual project.
A “learning by doing” approach was applied, by means of the introduction of a graduated sequence of exercises and small projects, followed immediately by their development and simulation with Deeds. All the learning material was available in the Deeds’ website and all the necessary software (Deeds and Quartus II) had been previously installed on the lab’s PC by Metropolia personnel and it worked without flaws.
Students were interested and proactive, their interest grew day by day and the class progressed toward the final project, the design and implementation on a FPGA board of a common project, a seven-digits chronometer, structured as a controller-datapath system. The experience has been a very positive one for both students and teachers: the former have acquired digital design skills and familiarity with the current programmable devices, the latter have verified the validity of their pedagogical methods.
Our thanks to Antti Piironen, coordinator of the Summer School, and to Timo Leinonen, our “special” student.
