A World Wide Web-Based Laboratory for Undergraduate Analog VLSI Design

万维网（WWW）目前的流行程度和可访问性正在塑造教育机构为学生提供未来服务的方式。目前，有一个零星的，但不断增长的运动，向实验室提供WWW访问。这种能力有望为那些教授本科水平课程的人提供从遥远的地方获得真正最先进的教育设施的能力，而对遥远的校园来说，几乎没有额外的成本。这个项目的中心是在模拟集成电路设计和测试领域建立一个基于网络的本科实验室。该计划是开发一套自动化仪器，用于在几个本科水平的实验室测量预制模拟集成电路的特性。仪器被控制，测量结果通过万维网传输。实现该仪器套件所需的设备是一个个人计算机控制器（具有WWW接口），一个gpib控制的信号分析仪，一个函数发生器，一个可编程电源，一个频率计数器，一个数字存储示波器和一个高频数字万用表。该仪器的控制方式与马萨诸塞大学达特茅斯分校目前的高级实验室设备类似，后者基于类似的设备套件。

The World Wide Web's (WWW) current explosion in popularity and accessibility is shaping the way educational institutions provide future service to their students. At the present time, there is a sporadic, but growing, movement to provide WWW access to laboratories. This capability promises to provide those teaching undergraduate-level courses the ability to access truly state-of-the-art educational facilities from distant locations, with little or no additional cost to the distant campus. This project centers around the development of an undergraduate web-based laboratory in the area of analog integrated circuit design and testing. The plan is to develop a suite of automated instrumentation to be used for measuring the characteristics of the prefabricated analog integrated circuit in several undergraduate level laboratories. The instrumentation is controlled and the measurement results transmitted over the WWW. The equipment acquired to implement this instrumentation suite is a personal computer controller (featuring an interface to the WWW), a GPIB-controlled signal analyzer, a function generator, a programmable power supply, a frequency counter, a digital storage oscilloscope, and a high-frequency digital multimeter. The instrumentation is being controlled in a similar fashion as the current senior laboratory equipment at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, which is based on a similar equipment suite.