Abstract
Recent trends in development and utilization of online laboratories have resulted into standard platforms that are not lab-specific, which can be leveraged to develop laboratories in diverse fields. One such platform is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) interactive iLab Shared Architecture. This paper presents work undertaken at Makerere University to develop a synchronous sequential logic iLab based on this architecture. The research was carried out by a Graduate researcher, under joint supervision in the confines of the iLab Africa Graduate Fellowship Programme. The research builds on previous work undertaken by the same researcher, in which a combinational digital logic iLab was developed. The sequential logic iLab utilizes the National Instruments Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite (NI ELVIS II+) hardware, with its interactive user interface developed using the Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW). The generic platform supports experiments in the fields of counters, shift registers, frequency dividers and digital clocks, with appropriate electronic component selection and configuration. The design methodologies and implementation strategies for each experiment category are presented as well as the respective test runs. The laboratory has been used to support courses in the curricula of the Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) in Computer, Electrical and Telecommunication Engineering Programmes at Makerere University.
Highlights
Ever since Makerere University adopted iLabs in 2005, several laboratories have been developed to support curricula of the BSc. in Computer, Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering Programmes [1]
Development of the synchronous sequential logic iLab involved both hardware and software design The hardware designs were accomplished using the integrated environment of NI Multisim, while the software designs were conceptualized in Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW).For each of the experiment categories arising from the requirements specification, simulations were carried out in Multisim, utilizing the ELVIS bread board workspace and the simulated versions of the instruments
The development of the sequential logic iLab has contributed to increasing the number of online laboratories available at Makerere University
Summary
Ever since Makerere University adopted iLabs in 2005, several laboratories have been developed to support curricula of the BSc. in Computer, Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering Programmes [1]. Past research has delved in fields where the dearth of hardware for the conventional laboratories was acute, present research lends more towards improving the functionality of the existing laboratories or addressing their inefficiencies It is in this context that research toward developing the synchronous sequential logic iLab was undertaken. The laboratory, based on the NI ELVIS II hardware, hardware, supports experiments in areas of logic gate characterisation, combinational logic circuit synthesis and analysis It is based on the batched mode of the iLabs shared Architecture (ISA) [2]. The finite effect of the clock on the operation of the synchronous sequential logic circuits demands for real time monitoring of the experiment as it progresses For these reasons, the interactive version of the ISA was chosen over the batched one. The developer’s role is to build suitable LabVIEW Virtual instrument (VI) to interact with and control a specific experiment setup on the hardware, and configure it for use within the interactive ISA
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