The use of EPLD´s in the teaching of digital systems design

For the 3 years to 1990, 140 electronics and computing students in the faculty of information technology have been exposed to eraseable programmable logic devices (EPLD´s) from their first year. Despite the initial trepidation at such large numbers and range of backgrounds, the introduction has been successful and the use of EPLD´s is seen by students to be a natural way to implement medium performance logic functions. Additional benefits include widespread use in undergraduate and research projects and the updating of technician skills. There is no attempt to consider EPLD´s as an isolated subject. Rather, all the practical work is related to lecture courses which `just happen´ to use EPLD´s to implement the ideas presented in the lectures