THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO
	FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

	DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING


	ECE 616a - ADVANCED FPGA DESIGNS

	COURSE OUTLINE - 2003-2004

OBJECTIVE:

Field programmable gate array (FPGA) is one of the fastest growing fields in very-large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI) and microelectronics and is being used in almost all areas of digital signal processing, telecommunications, computer networks and encryption. The course will cover the simulation, programming and testing techniques of FPGA systems. 

CONTRACT HOURS:   2 lecture hours and 1 seminar hour/week, half course

ANTIREQUISITE:	None

PREREQUISITES:	Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering. Undergraduate course such as ECE339 is desirable.

COURSE CONTENTS:  

- Overview of VLSI and microelectronics
- Review of digital design
- VHSIC hardware design language (VHDL) 
- FPGA design flow
- Commercial FPGA architectures 
- Logic synthesis 
- FPGA Testing 
- Floorplanning & placement 
- Routing 
- Future direction:  nanotechnology and programmable quantum-dot cellular automata 


SPECIFIC LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

1) To introduce the principles of FPGA technology
2) To understand the FPGA design and implementation hierarchy 
3) To understand the VHDL language
4) To provide the FPGA design, simulation, implementation and testing techniques from VHDL coding to chip programming using a mix of tools such as VHDL, Xilinx XST, and Xilinx Foundation and Xilinx ISE

TEXTBOOK:

[1]	M. J. S. Smith, Application-Specific Integrated Circuits, Addison-Wesley, 1997. ISBN: 0201500221.
Electronic information:
http://www-ee.eng.hawaii.edu/~msmith/ASICs/HTML/ASICs.htm

PROJECT AND ORAL PRESENTATION:

The students in the course will be required to work on a project using computers and the FPGA development equipments on an assigned topic related to FPGA design and make an oral presentation along with the project-report submission. 

EVALUATION:

For the purpose of evaluation, the course is divided into two components, namely

a) project -  report and oral presentation	
b) final examination

The final course grade will be determined from students' performance in the project and the final examination.  The examination shall be semi-open book; calculators and formula sheets will be allowed.

In order to pass the course, a student must obtain a passing grade in each component.  A student who fails either component shall receive a final grade not greater than 48%.  The weighting of each of these components will be as follows:



Maximum Penalties*
Component
Value
English
Presentation
Project: Report and Presentation
50%
10%
10%
Final Examination
50%
10%
10%

*In accordance with the policy of the University, the grade assigned to all written and oral work presented in English shall take into account syntax, diction, grammar and spelling.  In the professional life of an engineer, the manner in which oral and written communications are presented is extremely important.  An engineering student must develop these skills as an integral part of the undergraduate program.  To encourage the student to do so, the grades assigned to all written and oral work will take into account all aspects of presentation including conciseness, organization, neatness, use of headings, and the preparation and use of tables and figures.  

All work will be marked first for content after which a penalty not to exceed the maximum shown above may be applied for lack of proficiency in English and/or presentation.

ATTENDANCE:

Any student, who in the opinion of the instructor is absent too frequently from class in this course, will be reported to the Dean (after due warning has been given).  On the recommendation of the Department concerned, and with the permission of the Dean, the student will be debarred from taking the regular examination in the course.

CHEATING:

University policy states that cheating is a scholastic offence.  The commission of a scholastic offence is attended by academic penalties that might include expulsion from the program.  If you are caught cheating, there will be no second warning.

PLAGIARISM: 

Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a passage of text from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offence (see Scholastic Offence Policy in the Western Academic Calendar).  The following web site provides some clear examples that will help avoid plagiarism:
http://www.hamilton.edu/academics/resource/wc/usingsources.html

COURSE INSTRUCTOR: 

Wei Wang 
Elborn College, Room 1006
661-2111 ext. 88428
wwang@eng.uwo.ca

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