In the first semester of the Digital Systems Lab course we have dealt with programming a Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD) using the Lattice ispDesignEXPERT Starter-kit with an development board, the ispDesignEXPERT software to design in ABEL and with schematics, and the ispVM (version 9.x) software to download the design into CPLDs on the development board. We have installed the software and hardware needed for the experiments and made a few applications related to theoretical aspects studied in the Introduction to Digital Systems Course.