Use of the ispMACH 4A as a Low Cost Teaching Aid of VHDL in an Engineering Curriculum

摘要

In this paper, a low cost teaching aid of VHDL for engineering curriculums is presented. The teaching aid is a custom designed development board centered on the ispM4A CPLD. The development of the teaching aid is the direct result of collaboration between engineering faculty at Hochschule Harz (University of Applied Studies and Research) in Wernigerode, Germany and Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, Georgia, USA in 2006. The discussion that follows includes an overview of VHDL hardware in engineering education, an overview of the ispM4A, a design review of the teaching aid, and a discussion of how it can be used in the classroom.