Experiences with the MacTester in computer science and engineering education

Author

McKenzie, Neil R. ; Ebeling, Carl ; Mcmurchie, Larry ; Borriello, Gaetano

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci. & Eng., Washington Univ., Seattle, WA, USA

Volume

40

Issue

1

fYear

1997

fDate

2/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

12

Lastpage

21

Abstract

Teaching students the complete process of circuit design, simulation, implementation, test and debug is a daunting task. Even though design description tools and circuit compilers have kept up with the increasing levels of integration found in current implementation media such as FPGAs and microcontrollers, it has become increasingly difficult for students to test and debug the complex hardware projects enabled by these modern tools and devices. In this paper we describe an inexpensive digital circuit testing environment that greatly simplifies the test and debug experience. This environment, consisting of the tester hardware and its corresponding software, enables students to experience the challenges of testing and debugging without the expense of costly commercial hardware testers or the drudgery of setting up ad hoc hardware test jigs. The MacTester has been in use in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington for three years in both undergraduate and graduate hardware design courses as sell as independent study and research projects

Keywords

application specific integrated circuits; computer science education; digital integrated circuits; electronic engineering computing; electronic engineering education; field programmable gate arrays; integrated circuit design; ASIC; FPGA; MacTester; Washington University; circuit compilers; circuit design; circuit simulation; computer science education; design description tools; digital circuit testing environment; digital systems; engineering education; graduate hardware design courses; hardware projects debugging; independent research projects; mixed-mode simulation; programming language interface; schematic editor user interface; undergraduate hardware design courses; Circuit simulation; Circuit synthesis; Circuit testing; Computational modeling; Computer science; Education; Field programmable gate arrays; Hardware; Microcontrollers; Software testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Education, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9359

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/13.554665

Filename

554665