Extensive Coverage of Functional Verification of Hardware Designs

This paper presents the author\´s experience in teaching HDL concepts as part of a Digital Systems course and the conclusions regarding the importance of extensive coverage of functional verification of hardware designs. After almost four years of teaching this course and similar ones, the conclusions are that more time must be spent on functional verification rather than the traditional concepts of basic syntax and semantics to describe digital circuits. Such an approach may improve the learning process and the achievement of concepts and skills in digital design, encourage creative an analytical thinking, and overall assure more reliable designs. To prove the validity of this new approach, a research study regarding "Functional Verification in Digital Systems" was approved by The Institutional Research, Planning and Assessment department at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, IN, and assessment data were gathered starting at the end of the winter quarter 2006-2007.