DIGITAL system design is an important subject in electrical
and computer engineering. At Bucknell University,
Lewsisburg, PA, two courses in digital system design are available.
A required course, entitled Digital System Design, is first
offered in the fall semester of the junior year. In this course, students
learn Boolean algebra, number systems and codes, combination
logic minimization, the properties and applications
of latches and flip-flops, synchronous finite-state-machine design,
as well as the synthesis of latches and flip-flops using asynchronous
sequential circuit design methods. Schematic capture
tools are used by students in this course to create a design. Many
students who have taken this digital system design course nevertheless
encounter tremendous difficulty in generating a functional
circuit when a new design assignment is given to them.
Some students even have trouble in getting their design process
started. Advanced Digital Design, offered to senior and graduate
students, is included in the curriculum as an elective for students
to learn the methodologies of system-level digital design. The
course consists of three hours per week of lecture and laboratories,
respectively. VHDL, the very high speed integrated circuits
(VHSIC) hardware description language, is used in the course
for defining the functions of a digital system [1]. In addition
to VHDL and advanced topics in logic optimization, the main
objective is to teach students digital system design using microarchitectural
modeling.