Embedded System Design with FPGA

This course gives the foundation of FPGA design for embedded systems using VHDL as a hardware description language. The students will learn what an FPGA is and how this technology was developed, how to select the best FPGA architecture for a given application, how to use state of the art software tools for FPGA development, and solve critical digital design problems using FPGAs.

Digital VLSI design and the need for hardware description languages (HDL). Technologies for fabrication of integrated circuits. Programmable technologies. Complex programmable logic devices (CPLD) – architectures, programmable interconnections and macrocell structure. Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) – architecture, configuration logic blocs and switching matrix. Commercial FPGA architectures. VHDL structure – entity and architecture. Ports and signals. Concurrent and sequential statements. VHDL description of combinational and sequential logic. Simulation versus synthesis. Functions and procedures in VHDL. Finite State Machine Datapath design – optimization and implementation.  Memory components and memory controllers. Distributed and embedded RAM in FPGA. Using IP Core (Intellectual Property)in FPGA design. Hierarchy in designing large digital systems. RTL (Register Transfer Level) design – definition, types of RTL design. Steps in RTL designing. Optimization of RTL design. RTL design with HDL. Synthesis and implementation of design. Hardware-software co-design.

lectures with presentations, homework and project assignment