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Students are introduced to Hardware Description Languages (HDL) through the assembly of virtual versions of the digital parts used in the previous semester's Digital Systems Fundamentals. From this point on, new components called modules are created as needed to implement larger digital circuits. Increasingly complex digital systems are then created through stages such as desktop calculators, and culminating in the design of microcontrollers and microprocessors. The hardware used for the digital systems designed is a custom board containing a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This board is configured using software on the student's computer, but is designed to standalone. That is, once configured, it no longer needs to be connected to any host computer. The architecture of these complex digital systems starts with Finite State Machines (FSM). Hierarchical FSMs are then covered, followed by traditional two and three bus microprocessor architectures and digital signal processors.