Advanced Computer Architecture and Embedded System Design

 Course description :
The Delft University of Technology and the Leiden University of have set up a new course on system design. In this course we learn how to design advanced processors and embedded systems.

An embedded system is an information processing system which determines or controls to a large extent the behavior of a larger system. Embedded systems play a major role in life; e.g., the number of embedded processors with embedded software used by each person per day is about 50, and this number increases rapidly; the number of embedded processors sold annually is about a factor 20 more than general purpose processors. Given that embedded systems are of special importance to the industry and the academic community we dedicate substantial attention on engineering issues (both hardware and software) associated with such systems.

We will use follow the whole design trajectory, from specification, partitioning, implementation (software in C and hardware in VHDL), code generation and synthesis, to hardware technology (library or cell) mapping. Elaborate lab exercises will supplement the course. In order to make quick prototyping and realizations possible we use advanced FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) and corresponding design tools.

Keywords: Hardware-Software CoDesign, Fast prototyping, VHDL, FPGA, Partitioning, Specification

Credits : 3 or more points
Lectures : 10 x 3 hours
Handouts: VHDL tutorial, slides and other material
Lab excercises : 3 large lab experiments
Grading : through oral presentations and written report
Related links and material
Related papers
Related books

Lectures:

1. Feb 4   : Introduction + VHDL part 1
2. Feb 18 : VHDL part2
3. Mar 4  : MIPS processor implementation details
4. Mar 18: Tooling 1: High level synthesis
5. Apr 1  : Tooling 2: Logic synthesis
6. Apr 15: Tooling 3: Technology mapping + FPGAs
7. Apr 29: Specification and Verification
8. May 20: Transport Triggered Architectures and Embedded System Design
9. Jun 10 :  Students project proposals
10. Sep ?   : Student results presentations

Handouts (will be extended):

• Announcement (dutch)
• Introduction slides (powerpoint slides)
• Introduction to VHDL (postscript slides)
• Introduction to the MIPS processor implementation (powerpoint slides based on the book of Patterson and Hennessy: Computer Organization and Design; chapters 5 and 6)
• part a
• part b
• VHDL Cookbook (by Peter Ashenden)
• FPGA tutorial (by Stephen Brown and Jonathan Rose)
• Slides on Computer Architecture, TTAs and Embedded system design

Lab exercises:

• Lab 1a: Starting with VHDL
• Lab 1b: 8-bit microprocessor implementation in VHDL
• Alternative lab-1b exercise: a Forth engine (a stack based processor)
• Other alternative: implement a small TTA processor (ask for details)
• Lab 2a: Using the Xilinx FPGA with the Foundation tools
• Explore the design steps using the GNOME microprocessor
• Lab 2b: Map your own processor into an FPGA
• Lab 3: Extend your own processor with a special functionality

Related links and material:

• Embedded Systems Education for the Future
• FPGA related links
• FPGA research University of Toronto
• NASA site: programmable technologies web site
• HOKI RISC 16 bit processor implemented in a Xilinx 4010
• VHDL for FPGAs how to program such that more efficient FPGA implementation results
• VHDL synthesis tutorial (by Bob Reese)
• Reconfigurable Computing Berkeley course CS 294-7
• Programmable Logic Jump Station
• New from embedded industry
• EG3 virtual publishing company having a huge list of resources
• Embedded system resources page
• FPGA vendors:
• Altera (check the FLEX FPGAs)
• Xilinx
• Atmel (check the new AT4 0K series)
• Xilinx virtex FPGAs
• Triscend E5 Configurable processor family

 

Related papers

 
• One Chip: an FPGA processor with reconfigurable logic

Ralph D. Wittig and Paul Chow
• Embedded system co-design towards portability and rapid integration

G. Borriello, P. Chou and R. Orthega
• Dynamically Programmable Gate Arrays

Andre DeHon
• Instruction-Level Parallelism for Reconfigurable Computing

Timothy J. Callahan and John Wawrzynek
• Fast Module Mapping and Placement for Datapaths in FPGAs (GARP project)

Timothy J. Callahan, Philip Chong, Andre DeHon and John Wawrzynek
• Garp: A MIPS processor with a reconfigurable coprocessor

John R. Jauserand and John Wawrzynek (Berkeley Univ.)
• A FPGA based Forth microprocessor

P.H.W. Leong, P.K. Tsang and T.K. Lee

Related books

• The Practical XILINX Designer Lab Book

David Van den Bout
Prentice Hall, 1999
(about $66; contains a CDROM with Xilinx Foundation software 1.5; for $109 you can buy the accompanying FPGA board XS40)
• Giovanni De Micheli

Synthesis and optimization of digital circuits
McGraw-Hill, 1994
• The Designer's Guide to VHDL

Peter J. Ashenden
Morgan Kaufmann, 1995
• The Student's Guide to VHDL

(this is a shorter version of the previous book)
Peter J. Ashenden
Morgan Kaufmann, 1998
• VHDL starter's cuide

Sudhakar Yalamanchili
Prentice Hall 1998
(contains VHDL description of single cycle processor implementation as described in the book by Patterson and Hennessy on Computer Organization and Design)
• Digital design using Field Programmable Gate Arrays

Pak K. Chan and Samiha Mourad
Prentice Hall 1994
• Digital Systems design and prototyping using Field Programmable Logic

Zoran Salsic and Asim Smailagic
Kluwer Press, 1997
• Microprocessor Architectures: from VLIW to TTA

Henk Corporaal
John Wiley, 1998