Teaching hardware description languages to satisfy industry expectations

Industry demands that computer engineers have expertise in FPGA prototyping. A broad knowledge of a hardware description language (HDL) such as Verilog or VHDL is no longer sufficient. Industry expects engineers to write RTL-synthesizable code. Unfortunately, many colleges do not teach this material because the HDL is taught as a secondary topic in a digital design course. That approach does not allow sufficient time to cover efficient coding practices, the use of third-party IP and other essential topics. This paper describes an FPGA prototyping course, based on the Verilog HDL, that is completely separate from any digital design course. The prototyping course is supplemented with FPGA vendor application notes, uses industry-standard EDA tools and fully meets industry expectations.