ECE 511 Digital ASIC Design

Fall Term  (2004f)       last updated 2004-11-2
 
Course Resources Project
Calendar Description Library Overview
Marking Textbooks Due Dates
Lab Assignments Student Application Notes Student Application Notes
General Course Info Project Titles Project Proposal
Newsgroup Past Projects Project Specification

Manufacturers' Info Resource Requirements

VHDL examples Simulation Documentation

Project Ideas Complete Design & Test

NSERC scholarships Final Report

UA7k board documentation Oral Presentation

UP1 board test

ETLC e5-013 lab information

Use the class newsgroup ualberta.courses.ece.511 to ask questions, answer questions, or find project partners.
Use email for questions of a confidential nature.
Professor Duncan Elliott 492-5357 ECERF W2-036
TA Tyler Brandon







 

General Course Info

Lectures Tues & Thurs 12:3--13:50 GSB 859
The period will wrap up with a seminar or discussion.

Office hours

Lab Wed 14:00-16:50 and other times as needed
CAD lab in ETLC e5-013
Hardware lab in ETLC e5-001
Students have card access to e5-013 and are free to use these lab facilities when these rooms are not scheduled for another course.

In this course, you will develop the necessary skills to design complex digital ASICs (application specific integrated circuits) and systems on a chip (SoC) using CAD synthesis tools.  Working in a group, you and your partners will design and implement a significant digital system using field programmable gate arrays and complex programmable logic devices.

Outline

Marking

Labs
15 dates
Final Exam 
30 exam period
2 "cheat sheets"
Project
55
Application Notes 15

Proposal 0

Oct 4
Specification 5
Oct 25
Resource  Requirements &
Interface Demonstration
5
Nov 10
Simulation Documentation 5
Nov 25
Oral Presentation 10
Dec 7
ECERF w3-087
Final Report 15
Dec 8
All lab and project submissions are due by 3:50 pm in the ECE 511 assignment box outside of ECERF w2-023.  Oversized final reports should be taken to Sylvia in ECERF W2-023, for her to timestamp and place in my mailbox.  Late submissions will be penalized 20% of the assigned mark per school day.  Submissions will not normally be re-graded more than two weeks after the first day these have been returned in class.

The following calculators are permitted for examinations in this course: faculty approved programmable calculators, faculty approved non-programmable calculators, instructor approved abacuses (if used quietly).  Programmable calculators will probably offer little or no advantage over non-programmable calculators.

Grade Determination Method

In this course, raw marks will be calculated up until after the final exam.  The resulting overall percentage mark will then be converted for each student to a letter grade.  A standard expected distribution of grades, which is provided by the Faculty of Engineering, will be used as a rough guideline when mapping overall marks to grades.  Absolute merit of the work will also be taken into consideration.

Code of Student Behaviour

The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behavior (online at http://www.ualberta.ca/secretariat/appeals.htm ) and avoid any behavior that could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.

Policy about course outlines can be found in §23.4(2) of the University Calendar. 
 

Library Resources

These readings are available for short-term loan from Cameron Library:
 
Call number Title










Textbooks

Course notes will be handed out as the term progresses.

You will need some kind of VHDL textbook.  These are available in the bookstore:

recommended
The Student's Guide to VHDL by Peter J. Ashenden
ISBN 1-55860-520-7

extra reading
Digital System Design with VHDL by M. Zwolinski
ISBN 0-201-36063-2

Additional VHDL documentation is available from
VHDL International Users' Forum
VHDL Cookbook (a free textbook by Ashenden)
 

Lab Assignments

 

Due
Lab 1 Oct 1
Lab 2 Oct 6
Lab 3 Oct 13
Lab 4 Oct 27
Lab 5 Nov 3
Lab 6 Nov 10
Lab 7
not due
Students are to work alone on labs except where stated.  See here for where to submit labs. Labs reports should be brief but sufficiently clear and readable that you would be happy to submit them to a busy engineering manager.  If it only takes a sentence to describe something, then it should be described in a sentence.
Lab reports should include: Hints and tutorial information will be made  available here.
 
 

Chip Manufacturer's Documentation

Altera
Local UofA copies of documentation
 Literature
Altera University Frequently Asked Questions
Altera University Program
Applications notes
Altera is a trademark and service mark of Altera Corporation in the United States and other countries.  Altera products are the intellectual property
of Altera Corporation and are protected by copyright laws
Actel
Local UofA copies of documentation
Xilinx
Vertex 2 Datasheets
FPGA Multimedia Board (HW-V2000-MLTA)