Bridging the gap between future software and hardware engineers: a case study using the Nios softcore processor

As digital designs grow both in size and functionality, the importance of software development concepts has increased. This has led to a demand in the industry for engineers with good skills in both electrical engineering and computer science. However, the general trend in undergraduate education has been a divergence of these two historically close fields of study. To have an influence in the opposite direction, a digital laboratory course was reformed at the Helsinki University of Technology. The modernized laboratory course includes exercises on Altera's Nios development platform, which has been enhanced with a custom-designed expansion board. The exercises include both software and hardware concepts and contribute to a better understanding between future electrical engineers and computer scientists. Based on student feedback, the initial objective of bridging the gap between software and hardware engineers has been achieved.