University Looking to Update Old Hardware

I was going to recommend cheap dev kits until you said you want to do breadboarding, which complicates things. I'd recommend contacting the Intel FPGA University Program for ideas and assistance:

I think what is going to happen is that the idea of dropping a chip (anymore) onto a breadboard is just not realistic, but I want to make sure that is what we will need to do. We have Quartus Prime 17 on our school network and dev board is probably what we will do. That was my recommendation, but.. you know. Thanks. What would you recommed dev board wise?

Based on your requirements, you could probably get away with a MAX 10 or Cyclone V (regular or SoC) kit. Terasic makes some great cheap kits in this space, and starter kits from Intel FPGA are really good as well.

"Individual chips that can be placed on a breadboard" (meaning DIP form factor most likely) is no longer realistic. FPGAs/CPLDs (modern parts) are invariably SMT packaging.

74-series logic is also very very oldschool. I think it was pretty old when I was at uni nearly 20 years ago.

I did say it was a first semester digital class (i.e. where students are introduced to AND gates for the first time) and if what you said was meant to be a little condescensding I don't appreciate it! I think the skills they learn (hopefully learn) debugging a malfunctioning circuit pays out large dividends in the long run. Basic problem solving skills is something most people have to learn and are not born with. I do agree, though, and would like to see more higher end projects even in our later FPGA class, but how many students right out of school who have spent 2-3 years learning all the basics of EE can do something like "get a SoC system up and running in a few days" and the logic to connect it all if they haven't learned the basics of logic?! But if you have a board you think we should consider I would listen to that.

I have seen too many 'electrical engineers' in recent years that have gone thru a four year degree program and have never learned how to connect an oscilloscope or logic analyzer to circuitry and then analyze and debug it. There is no substitute for beginners to have hands on to basic logic in the lab with simple to analyze devices (like 74xx stuff) and be able to physically probe it. Just wiring a bunch of devices via SPI or I2C and then turning the exercise into a software development project is not sufficient.

I must appologise for my post. It was late, I didnt read the message properly and I just fired something out.

I could not agree more. We have grad students who get their undergrad from other countries (their home) that emphasize theory and have no hands on who come here and have no idea what they are doing practically. I constantly come across students into their senior year who still don't grasp the difference between DC coupling and AC coupling on a scope and when to use the correct one when probing a circuit. Even when students can't get a circuit in a lab to work (if they are working outside the normal lab time) I force them to trouble shoot on their own first before running to me to fix it for them. But I am getting off topic.

No worries. Apology accepted. I know what it's like when the caffine has left your system and it's the end of a long day. I think even something as simple as a micro or an Arduino could easily impliment a simple boolean expression with if statements and the learning curve is less steep than even a Pi and certainly easier than a CPLD or FPGA. What we may end up doing is giving them the code to set something up (Pi, micro, FPGA, whatever) and more introduce them to something and give them a tour of what they will learn in more depth in a later class. Not entirely sure, but I appreciate your input.