ASIC Design Principle Course with Combination of Online-MOOC and Offline-Inexpensive FPGA Board

Di, Z.; Tang, Y.; Lu, J.; Lv, Z.

ASIC Design Principle (ASICDP) is a compulsory course for undergraduate majors in microelectronics and integrated circuits, and the focus of this paper is the teaching methods of online theoretical teaching and offline experimental teaching of this course. As is well known, in order to prevent and control COVID-19, the use of online platforms to carry out online teaching has attracted worldwide attention. In this paper, the teaching strategy "Online-MOOC + Offline Inexpensive FPGA Board"in ASICDP in the Spring 2020 semester is demonstrated, in where MOOC means Massive Open Online Course. The theoretical teaching content of ASICDP is entirely replicated from Hardware Acceleration Design Methodology (HADM) released by the present authors on "China University MOOC,"the largest MOOC platform in China. Meanwhile, with the support of the "Xilinx & Ministry of Education University-Industry Collaborative Education Program,"an FPGA development board called the "Spartan Edge Accelerator Board"(SEA Board) designed by the authors was used in the experimental teaching of the ASICDP. This method can be used to establish the linkage between online courses and offline experiments, and cultivate students' practical VLSI design and FPGA prototype verification skills. It is believed that for educators that want to improve courses related to ASIC design and FPGA prototype verification, Online-MOOC + Offline-Inexpensive FPGA Board is an effective method with lower cost that is easily promotable and replicated. © 2021 ACM.