The teaching of digital design in electrical engineering courses

The authors discuss some considerations at the different levels of the design process which should introduce future electrical engineers, presently "afloat in a sea" of fast changing technologies and CAD (computer aided design) tools, to the art of digital design. They point out that the major changes in design methods and the advent of CAD facilities on the background of already cheap and reliable digital integrated circuits have created a totally new environment for the training of undergraduate electrical engineering students. They suggest that the classical top-down approach should be accompanied by iterative feedback between all levels in the design process.