1. EEL4720/5721 Reconfigurable Computing
The state-of-the-art Reconfigurable Computing equipment available for this course is made possible by a generous grant from the Rockwell Collins Growth Relationship Grant Program and an equipment/software donation from Nallatech.

2. Instructors Dr. Greg Stitt TA: Brian Nezvadovitz gstitt@ece.ufl.edu
Office Hours: Mon/Tue Period 3 (9:35)
(Benton 323)
Also, by appointment
TA: Brian Nezvadovitz

3. Course Website 2 sites Sakai Email Policy
Linked off my website
Includes all slides, labs, reading assignments, announcements, etc.
Sakai
Select Sakai
Login with GatorLink account
Used for posting grades, turning in projects, student discussions
Policy
When sending an , include the class name in brackets
e.g. [EEL5721] Question about project 2

4. Grading Tests will be 50 minutes, during normal class time
Mid-term 1: 25% (Wed. October 10th)
Mid-term 2: 25% (Wed. December 5th)
Labs/Homework: 25%
Project: 25%
Tests will be 50 minutes, during normal class time
EDGE students have 3 day window for tests
October 9th-11th and December 3th-5th
Final grade: curved average of all components
5721 may possibly have different tests, project, or grading

5. Lab Assignments Linked off main website
Intended to familiarize with FPGA boards, VHDL
Initial labs will be individual
Groups allowed when using boards
There are ~100 students in this class and ~10 boards
Will announce group policies when discussing corresponding labs

6. Research Project 2 options Assigned project Proposed project
Most of the class will do this project
There will several alternatives for different group sizes
EDGE students will have a project appropriate for a individual participant
EDGE students can participate in groups if desired
Important: I will require a minimum number of groups to deal with the few boards
Likely 3-4 per group

7. Research Project, Cont. Proposed project
Topic subject to instructor approval
Due to the limited number of boards, the proposed project option must be earned
Will allow those with best grades or project ideas to do their own project
Suggestion: find algorithm in your area of interest, use RC to improve performance
Imaging processing, bioinformatics, physics, chemistry, etc.
If interested in research, me later in the semester
Will try to find a project that will helps towards degree

8. Reading Material No required textbook Research papers
Optional books on website and in syllabus
Research papers
Check class website for material associated with each lecture
Will also post slides when used
Important: VHDL resources posted on website

9. Prerequisites You should be familiar with basics of:
Digital design
Registers, muxes, adders, finite-state machines, etc.
Architecture
Controller+Datapath
Memories
Pipelining
Assumes no knowledge of reconfigurable computing or VHDL

10. Goals Understanding of issues related to RC (reconfigurable computing)
Architectures
Tools
Design methodologies
Speedup analysis
Etc.
Detailed investigation of a specific application
Research project
Publish!
Outstanding projects will be submitted to conferences

11. Academic Dishonesty
Unless told otherwise, labs and homework assignments must be done individually
All assignments will be checked for cheating
Groups must obtain permission to use larger size
May be allowed for difficult projects
Collaboration is allowed (and encouraged), but within limits
Can discuss problems, how to use tools etc.
Cannot show code, solutions, etc.
I will be using automatic cheat checking
Cheating penalties
First instance - 0 on corresponding assignment
Second - 0 for entire class

12. Attendance Policy Attendance is optional, but highly recommended
If you are not an EDGE student, please don’t disappear!
I answer a lot of questions before and after lecture
I will not be pleased if you come to my office or send me an with the same questions
If you are sick, stay at home!
If obviously sick, you will be asked to leave
Missed tests can be retaken with doctor’s note

13. What is Reconfigurable Computing?
Reconfigurable computing (RC) is the study of architectures that can adapt (after fabrication) to a specific application or application domain
Involves architecture, tools, CAD, design automation, algorithms, languages, etc.

14. What is Reconfigurable Computing?
Alternatively, RC is a way of implementing circuits without fabricating a device
Essentially allows circuits to be implemented as “software”
Circuits are no longer synonymous with hardware
RC devices are programmable by downloading bits, just like microprocessors
Difference is that microprocessor bits specify instructions, whereas RC bits specify circuit structures b a c x y
Microprocessor Binaries
FPGA Binaries (Bitfile)
Bits loaded into program memory
Bits loaded into logic blocks, switch matrices, memories, etc.
Processor
Processor
FPGA
0010 …
0010 …

15. Why is RC important? Performance Low power consumption
Often orders of magnitude faster than microprocessors
Low power consumption
A few RC devices can provide similar performance as large cluster at a fraction of the power
Also smaller, cheaper, etc.
Motivating example: Novo-G
FPGA-based supercomputer
192 large Altera Stratix III FPGAs
24 Linux nodes
Speedups of 100,000x to 550,000x for computation biology apps (compared to 2.4 GHz Opteron)
Performance similar to top supercomputers
However, power consumption is only 8 kilowatts compared to 2-7 megawatts

16. Reminders Lab 0 – ISE+VHDL Tutorial Read RC survey linked off website
Start reading VHDL tutorial