Teaching Tool for Digital Control and Signal Processing Generating Automatic Code for FPGA’s

Objectives: The educational implementation of code generation software for FPGA device is presented. The objective is to allow the students to develop implementations without knowing the structure of the programmable logics device, or any hardware description language. Methods: A software tool was developed for this purpose. In the user's interface of the tool, the transference function of the controller or digital filter must be entered, and then the code VHDL will be automatically generated in a standard format, compatible with any programmable logics device. Findings: It was found that the possibility that students might have by implementing a controller, or a higher-order system without making a complex code makes that the learning process speeds up, and that the student faces specific problems related to digital control and signals processing, leaving aside the restrictions given by the difficulties in the use of the hardware's description language, as well as the required knowledge of the devices structure. The use of the tool allows that students develop their laboratory practices generating digital dynamic systems in a high level, which allows avoiding potential errors in their implementations. Besides the possibilities in the industrial level, the tool is capable of being used by students of Engineering without knowledge in hardware programming, which study topics related to control, but not specialized in topics related to implementation. Application: Results linked to learning in some engineering classes with and without the use of the tool are shown at the end of this paper.