Autotrinity: An Heterogeneous Runner Based Remote Digital System Lab System

Digital system design lies an important part in modern electronics engineering and computer science, and is usually described in hardware description languages (HDLs), like verilog/system verilog, or VHDL, all of whom have been widely taught and used in industry and academia [1] [2]. In educational purpose, digital system design is usually taught with tools like HDLs and FPGA boards or its simulators. However, FPGA boards are expensive and fragile components, and institutes tends to limit the access to boards in classrooms and labotaries. To ease the conflict between the accessibility and the risk of damaging or losing the FPGA boards, remote lab systems are proposed to provide easier maintainence and 7/24 access to resources like FPGA boards. The paper represents an overview of a remote FPGA laboratory system named autotrinity. Autotrinity is a remote laboratory system providing remote FPGA access. Autotrinity offers a virtual FPGA interface decoupled with actual FPGA device, making it possible to run the same source file on different FPGA resources. Autotrinity also integrates a simple CI/CD system for source file checking and building source HDL files. This can hopefully alleviate the aforementioned issues and provide a better experience for both students and course maintainers.