Nis, 24. March 2006 Experiences on new courses: Embedded Systems and Micro-Architectures Prof. dr Mile Stojčev, Prof. dr Goran Lj. Djordjevic Faculty of Electronic Engineering, University of Nis

Nis, 24. March 2006 Outline – Micro-Architecutres Course Description and Goals Course Contents Prerequisites and Course Level Textbooks Class Hours Homeworks Exams Layout of Seminar work Student Workload Novelties in Teacher Engagement

Nis, 24. March 2006 Intention: This course introduces the students to design of combinational and sequential logic circuits, as well as small to medium digital systems consisting of multiple components such as a controller and datapath at register-transfer level (RTL) of abstraction using a Hardware Description Language (HDL). Micro-Architecutres Course Description and Goals

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Course Description and Goals Goals: The objectives of this course are to provide students with a working knowledge required to: Develop digital system designs in VHDL at behavioral, register-transfer, and structural levels; and to verify their designs via HDL simulation. Build the individual components of a digital system, and how to put them together in constructing a digital system. Create digital circuits using commercial Computer- Aided-Design (CAD) tools

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Course Contents The course is divided in three parts: Implemetation styles and design methodologies, VHDL, RTL design

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Course Contents Implemetation styles and design methodologies: Introduces the design options and implementation techniques available for the design of modern digital systems (standard IC, PLD, ASIC), and explains the important trade-offs between different implementation styles Introduces levels of abstraction used to represent digital systems, and explains top-down design methodology emphasising importance of hierarchy in the design of complex digital systems and the role of CAD concepts and tools.

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Course Contents VHDL: Introduces basic VHDL language constructs and concepts needed for behavioral, RTL and structural VHDL modeling for synthesis. Presents guidelines for VHDL synthesis of combinational and register components and state machine design (FSM and ASM). Provides introduction to pre-synthesis simulation, testbenches, and design verification using VHDL simulator.

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Course Contents RTL Design: How to design a digital system from an algorithmic description of a problem in top-down approach. Design hierarchy and decomposition. Data path design and sequential design using the ASM charts. Top-down design methodology in VHDL.

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Prerequisites and Course Level The requirements for this course include: Fundamentals of Electronics, Digital Logic Circuits

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Prerequisites and Course Level Students should be familiar with: Number systems, Boolean postulates, Logic minimization, Combinational logic functions (adders, multiplexers, decoders, comparators, etc.), Flip-flops, Sequential logic functions (registers, counters, shift registers, memory, etc. ), State machines, state diagrams and state tables

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Prerequisites and Course Level Typical Student and Web site. A typical student in this course will be a second year undergraduate student in Electrical Engineering. You may view specific course descriptions in greater details by going to the web site.

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Textbooks Required textbook: Circuit Design with VHDL, by Volenei Pedroni, MIT Press Additional Recommended Textbooks: 1)VHDL, Programming by Example, by Douglas Perry; 2)Fundamentals of Digital Logic with VHDL Design, by Stephen Brown and Zvonko Vranesic, McGraw- Hill;

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Homeworks There are five homeworks distributed throughout the semester. These homeworks are intended to familiarize students with the material covered in lecture. These homeworks are designed to strengthen the students’ knowledge of VHDL and prepare them for the final project. All homeworks must be completed individually

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Seminar work - Example Sequential divider Design a digital system that implements the traditional long-hand division. Given two unsigned n-bit numbers A and B, design a circuit that produces two n-bit outputs Q and R, where Q i quotient A/B and R i remainder. The procedure is illustrated …

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Seminar work - Example 1. Begin with software algorithm 2. Perform initial optimizations. R = 0; for C = 0 to N-1 do (R,A) = (R,A) << 1; if(R ≥ B) then Q C = 1; R = R - B; else Q C = 0; end if; end for; R = 0; for C = 0 to N-1 do (R,A) = (R,A) << 1; if(R ≥ B) then Q = (Q << 1) 1 ; R = R - B; else Q = (Q << 1) 0 ; end if; end for; R = 0; C = N-1; do (R,A) = (R,A) << 1; if(R ≥ B) then Q = (Q << 1) 1 ; R = R - B; else Q = (Q << 1) 0 ; end if; while(C≥0);

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Seminar work - Example 3. Convert software algorithm into functional ASM diagram. 4. Optimization (state and register minimization)

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Seminar work - Example 5. Data path design

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Seminar work - Example 6. Convert functional ASM into control unit ASM

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Seminar work - Example 7. Write VHDL code 8. Simulation 9. Document the design datapath.vhd LIBRARY ieee; 3 USE ieee.std_logic_1164.all; ENTITY datapath IS 6 PORT (a,b : IN STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(7 DOWNTO 0); 7 rsel,lr,er,la,ea,eb,eq,lc,ec,rst,clk : IN STD_LOGIC; 8 cout,z : OUT STD_LOGIC; 9 q,r : OUT STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(7 DOWNTO 0)); 10 END datapath; ARCHITECTURE structure OF datapath IS COMPONENT shift IS 15GENERIC (N : INTEGER); 16...

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Grading All activities are obligatory Homeworks15 pts. Final Project25 pts. Writing Part30 pts. OralPart30 pts. Minimal points for each activity should be 50%

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Student Workload The syllabus for this course presumes 15 weeks to the semester with 170 hours workload: The class meets 2 hours per week. 3 hours of laboratory work 3 hours of homework per week 2 hours discussion sections once per week. Over the first 13 weeks of the semester the total student workload is about hours. Students are also expected to work for about 60 hours to complete a design project and prepare the final examination.

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architecutres Workload Allocation 15 x 2 = 30 hours – lectures 13 x 3 = 39 hours – laboratory work 13 x 3 = 39 hours – homeworks 20 hours to complete a design project 40 hours to prepare the final examination Total 168 hours what corresponds to 6 ECTS Units (i.e. 28 hours per ECTS Unit)

Nis, 24. March 2006 Micro-Architectures Novelties in Teacher Engagement For the theoretical part of the course writing material (translated and adapted) is prepared PowerPoint presentations for all lectures is available Homeworks and final projects for each student are defined in advance Two hours of additional discussion sections per week Presentation and writing material of the course are available at

Nis, 24. March 2006 Outline – Embedded Systems Course Description and Goals Prerequisites and Course Level Textbooks Class Hours Homeworks Exams Layout of Seminar work Student Workload Novelties in Teacher Engagement

Nis, 24. March 2006 Intention: This course introduces the students to embedded systems design techniques and methods beginning with introduction of the basic concepts, importance and application areas to complex networked embedded systems design. Embedded Systems Course Description and Goals

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Course Description and Goals Subject: The course is concerned with advanced aspects of embedded systems as information processing systems that are embedded into a larger product and that are normally not directly visible to the user. It presents numerous tradeoffs in design and implementation, system interaction, realization, and trends that will affect future systems.

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Course Description and Goals The Main Themes. Topics covered in lectures include: Specifications of Embedded Systems, Design Methodologies of Embedded Systems, Embedded System Hardware, Embedded Operating Systems and Middleware, Hardware/Software Co-Design, IP Reusability, Validation, and Applications.

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Course Description and Goals The Goals: The goal of this course is to teach the basic techniques of HDL model generation of parameterized reconfigurable architectures. At the end of the course, the students will have the designed and presented domain specific processors, mixed circuit design solutions, system- on-chip designs, and networked embedded systems with specifications close to state of the art.

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Course Description and Goals Portions of the Goals: Portions of this work will be done individually as a homework; the bulk of the work will be done in groups of two to three as a term project. Modern commercial CAD tools are used to develop this project. The project represents a significant investment at time and is a significant portion of the class grade.

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Prerequisites and Course Level The Requirements. The requirements for this course include: Fundamentals of Electronics, Analog Integrated Circuits, Digital Logic Circuits and Systems, Micro-Architectures, and Computer Architecture.

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Prerequisites and Course Level Additional Requirements. Students should be familiar with: Basics of CMOS Device, Microprocessor Systems and Programming in C and Assembly, VHDL or Verilog Hardware Design Language, and System Level Design Language SystemC

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Prerequisites and Course Level Typical Student and Web site. A typical student in this course will be a fourth year Electrical Engineering or final year of undergraduate student in Computer Engineering. You may view specific course descriptions in greater details by going to the web site.

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Textbooks Required textbook: Embedded System Design, by Peter Marwedel, Kluwer Academic Publishers Additional Recommended Textbooks: 1)Embedded Systems Handbook, ed. By Richard Zurawski, CRC Press; 2)2) Embedded Systems, by Rashid Gupta, John Wiley and Sons; 3)3) System Design with SystemC, by Thorsten Grotker, et al, Kluwer Academic Publishers

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Homeworks There are five homeworks distributed throughout the semester. These homeworks are intended to familiarize students with the material covered both in lecture and selected readings. Three VHDL/Verilog projects are also distributed through the first half of the semester. These projects are designed to strengthen the students’ knowledge of VHDL/Verilog and prepare them for the final project. All homeworks and projects, with the exception of the final project, must be completed individually

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Seminar work - Example

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Grading All activities are obligatory Homeworks15 pts. Small Projects15 pts. Final Project20 pts. Writing Part25 pts. OralPart25 pts. Minimal points for each activity should be 50%

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Student Workload The syllabus for this course presumes 15 weeks to the semester with 210 hours workload: The class meets 3 hours per week. 3 hours of laboratory work 5 hours of homework/small project per week 2 hours discussion sections once per week. Over the first 13 weeks of the semester the total student workload is about hours. Students are also expected to work for about 60 hours to complete a design project and prepare the final examination.

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Workload Allocation 15 x 3 = 45 hours – lectures 13 x 3 = 40 hours – laboratory work 13 x 4 = 52 hours – homeworks and small projects 30 hours to complete a design project 40 hours to prepare the final examination Total 207 (i.e. 210) hours what corresponds to 7 ECTS Units (i.e. 30 hours per ECTS Unit)

Nis, 24. March 2006 Embedded Systems Novelties in Teacher Engagement For the theoretical part of the course writing material (translated and adapted) is prepared PowerPoint presentations for all lectures is available Homeworks, small projects, and final projects for each student are defined in advance Two hours of additional discussion sections per week Presentation of the course is available at

Nis, 24. March 2006 Conclusions Two new courses “Embedded Systems”, and “Micro-architecture” are involved at the directions of Electronics and Computer Engineering. Both courses are obligatory courses for direction Electronics (IV and VII semesters) Embedded Systems is elective for Computer Engineering (IX semester) Average number of students per group is 15

Nis, 24. March 2006 Conclusions Our impression is that a pronounced interest for doing projects exist. In average each student spent 30 hours to complete the project By our opinion the quality of the project is satisfactory After finishing the project students are able to cope with some complex problems