15-625-517 / 20-260-617--Silicon Programming--Winter 1997-98

12:00--12:50 MWF, room TBA
Catalog Data: Introduction to modern integrated circuit design. High-level design tools, structured design concepts, and designing for testability will be emphasized. Students will apply these concepts to design of a complete integrated circuit "chip".
Textbook:
C.N. Purdy, Introduction to Structured VLSI Design.
(Design tool documentation will be provided online and through the World Wide Web: www.altera.com

References:
  1. Weste and Esraghian, Principles of CMOS VLSI Design: A Systems Perspective,
    Second Edition, Addison-Wesley.
  2. Altera Design Manuals and AHDL Reference Manual.
  3. Gajski (ed.), Silicon Compilation, Addison-Wesley.
Instructor: C. Purdy, 888 Rhodes, 556-1810, carla.purdy@uc.edu
Goals: To present a structured approach to VLSI design and testing and to give students the experience of designing and testing a complete integrated circuit.
Prerequisites by Topic: Data structures; computer organization.
Topics (subject to change):
  1. Overview of modern circuit specification, design, simulate, test, and maintenance:
    CAD; modular design; behavioral, structural and physical views; major tasks in the design-simulate-test process.
  2. Structural views: Boolean algebra; combinational and sequential logic.
  3. Physical views: N-type and P-type transistors; CMOS inverter; major steps in chip fabrication.
  4. Behavioral views: VHDL, AHDL; consequences of abstraction.
  5. Designing better circuits--Elementary techniques: minimization of
    combinatorial logic (K-maps, QM procedure); state minimization for finite state machines; retiming; some rules of thumb for physical design; specialized designs (PLA’s, FPGA’s); translations from one view to another.
  6. Using CAD tools to create a circuit: the specifiy-design-simulate-test-maintain process--what tasks can be automated? (NOTE: Altera Design Tools will be used this quarter)
  7. Circuit simulation--simulation of behavioral, structural and physical views;
    types of faults which can be detected.
  8. Circuit fabrication and testing; yield.
  9. Overview of advanced techniques in circuit design-simulate-test.
  10. Emerging technologies--analog circuits; MEMS; optical elements; quantum gates.
Computer Usage: Both PC’s and workstations will be used
Laboratory projects: 1-4; the major project will consist of designing and testing a complete circuit implemented in an Altera CPLD..