A PLA emulation laboratory

In a typical undergraduate logic design course, programmable logic arrays, (PLAs) are usually a non-trivial topic of discussion. PLA design and PLA programming concepts are very likely to be discussed at length in the classroom. Most logic design courses have a corresponding laboratory component and most classroom topics are reinforced in the laboratory. An exception to this is the PLA and other programmable hardware devices. PLA's are typically not presented in laboratory settings. The reason for this omission is likely to be the lack of ability to program PLAs due to the hardware configurations of typical undergraduate logic design laboratories. The author discusses the issue of PLA omission from the typical undergraduate logic design laboratory. Then he describes a PLA emulation laboratory that can be performed in the typical laboratory using only basic logic gates. The emulated PLA is not only built by students in the laboratory but also programmed and reprogrammed by students as well.<>