A new elearning system integrating a top-down elearning and new virtual remote laboratory environments for logic circuit design

A new distance learning system, integrating a top-down design support system and a multi-user/multi-test-bed remote laboratory system for digital circuit hardware design and implementation course, is realized. The proposed system employs the hardware description language (VerilogHDL) for the design database and FPGAs for design implementation test-beds. Students using this remote laboratory system at remote sites can perform actual hardware experiments in parallel. It realized a remote multi-user time-sharing hardware experiment system. It has achieved seamless remotes and actual hardware laboratories, which resolve conflicts among users, when many users request the same services at the same time. The top-down design support system guides students to complete projects. The course material database is organized in the form of a design-module-cell hierarchy tree, where each design-module-cell contains a sample circuit design, described in VerilogHDL. The use of XML wrapped VerilogHDL descriptions and specially extended XML vocabularies contributed to share designed modules among students and teachers as well across the Internet via the Web. The prototype of the distance learning system, integrating both the digital circuit design support system using top-down approach and the multi-user remote laboratory system for running experiment of digital circuit, has been developed. It has achieved an effective and efficient distance learning system.