On the evolution of remote laboratories for prototyping digital electronic systems

• Autor(a) principal: Indrusiak, Leandro Soares
• Data de Publicação: 2007
• Outros Autores: Glesner, Manfred, Reis, Ricardo Augusto da Luz
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10183/27608
• topic: Microeletrônica; Circuitos integrados; Fpga; Design automation; Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs); Integrated circuit design; Remote laboratories

The design of digital electronic systems for industrial applications can benefit in many ways from the prototyping capabilities of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platforms. This paper presents three evolutionary releases of an FPGA-based remote laboratory and discusses the didactical and technical motivations behind each release, aiming to reduce the overhead of setting up and operate a laboratory environment where designers and students can use FPGA prototyping to validate their designs. To achieve that, a number of abstraction layers were introduced, allowing configuration and data processing in remote FPGA platforms, as well as integrating such platforms within a simulation environment. The proposed approach supported a number of projects where groups of designers and students could specify, refine, and prototype electronic systems using a pool of remotely available FPGA platforms.