Teaching digital electronics courses using high-level synthesis tools

Modern digital electronics courses usually include hardware description languages as a useful tool to implement relatively complex digital designs using programmable logic devices. These languages are close to the final hardware architecture, but usually lead to long and complex design procedures. To overcome this limitation, high level synthesis tools provide an intuitive and straight-forward design flow using well-known programming languages such as C. This paper deals with the inclusion in a digital electronics course high-level synthesis tools to provide the student with a wider vision and additional design tools. An application example focused on digital control of power converters is provided, and the main benefits and drawbacks arisen are highlighted.