Digital Systems Rapid Prototyping Laboratory

Contact Person: Bryant Gonzaga, Prof. Ken Short 
Location: Room 230, Light Engineering
Usage: ESE 382, ESE 440, ESE 441, ESE 475, ESE 476, ESE 499

The Digital Systems Rapid Prototyping Laboratory is devoted to teaching, research, and system design projects involving advanced digital systems employing embedded microprocessor based systems and VHDL based digital systems. The laboratory is located adjacent to the Embedded Systems Design Laboratory (ESDL), in room 228 on the second floor of the Light Engineering building.

The DSRPL facility is structured to support advanced digital design projects, as well as the laboratory portion of an upper division undergraduate VHDL digital design course, ESE-382. The lab room is configured with design stations equipped with computer workstations that are networked to the laboratory's RAID 1 compliant Windows 2003 server. Each workstation includes a dual-display design interface, and provides access to a number of sophisticated software design packages, including ActiveHDL by Aldec, Synplify Pro by Synopsys, ispLEVER by Lattice Semiconductor, and other related software packages. All software packages utilize floating licensing, and are available on virtually all computers in the DSRPL, as well as the ESDL (see above).

The project design verification stations may also be configured with a variety of test and debugging equipment, as needed for a respective design project. Available are JTAG based (on-chip) in-circuit emulators, logic analyzers, spectrum analyzers, digital storage oscilloscopes, arbitrary function/waveform generators, frequency counters, and a variety of other standard and custom lab test equipment. Further available in this room is a device programming station that supports a large number of programmable logic devices including EPROMs, microcontrollers, standard and complex PLDs, and FPGAs. Currently this lab supports digital system design projects utilizing a large varienty of configurable devices such as CPLDs, Cross-over PLDs, and FPGAs from Lattice, Xilinx, and Altera.

The DSRPL meets all requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and other mandated safety requirements of the Federal and New York State governments. There are several wheel-chair accessible student workstations available in the DSRPL.