All programmes > Design of Digital Platforms

Design of Digital Platforms (B-KUL-H09J6B)

3 ECTSEnglish28 First termCannot be taken as part of an examination contract
Dehaene Wim (coordinator) |  Dehaene Wim |  N. |  Verplancke Joost (substitute)
POC Nanowetenschappen en nanotechnologie

Aims

The course "design of digital platforms" aims to give the student insight into what a digital platform is through an overview of the different design steps and important design decisions in the development of a digital platform. Digital platforms make the connection between an application (e.g. multimedia) and the realization into embedded systems. The selection of a digital platform is essential in the design of electronic systems. 

After this course, the students should be able to: 

  • explain the different steps and abstraction levels in the design process of a digital platform; 
  • explain the impact of a low-level design decision on the system level performance parameters, being latency, throughput, area, energy efficiency and flexibility; 
  • to discuss the trade-offs between these parameters; 
  • to derive a control flow graph and data flow graph for simple algorithms; 
  • be able to implement a simple signal processing algorithm on an embedded processor and/or hardware accelerator, using data and control flow graphs. 
  • be able to compute and optimize the delay and energy consumption of a simple gate-level circuit; 
  • explain the differences between available digital platforms and choose the best suited platform for a given application; 
  • assess the impact of technology scaling on the future of digital platform performance; 

These goals are pursues through 3 activities: 

  • Lectures: teaching theories, accompanied by small written exercises. 
  • Exercise sessions: used to introduce the different design tools and design environments used during the design seminar. They make the link between theory and practice. 

Previous knowledge

Students should have basic knowledge of CMOS digital logic.

They should be able to design simple combinatorial and sequential circuits.

They should have experience with a hardware description language (Verilog, VHDL or other).

For the design seminar, they should also be familiar with a low level software language (e.g. C).

Order of Enrolment


This course unit is a prerequisite for taking the following course units:
H09K1A : Design of Digital Integrated Circuits

Identical courses

This course is identical to the following courses:
H09I0B : Ontwerp van digitale platformen (No longer offered this academic year)

Is included in these courses of study

Activities

2.41 ects. Design of Digital Platforms: Lecture (B-KUL-H05E7a)

2.41 ECTSEnglishFormat: Lecture18 First term
Dehaene Wim |  N. |  Verplancke Joost (substitute)
POC Elektrotechniek

Content

The lecture series of the course "design of digital platforms" contains the following topics:

  • Design of digital integrated circuits: translation from specificaties to implementation
  • Different abstraction levels: design tasks, terminology and design environments
  • Design goals: area, throughput, delay, power, energy, flexibility (HW/SW trade-off)
  • Data flow graph and control flow graph: definition and usage during design of digital platforms
  • HW/SW co-design
  • Gate level design for low power and for low energy
  • Usage of transformations at the algorithmic and hardware level to reach design goals
  • Large variation of digital platforms for embedded systems
  • Impact from technology scaling on digital platform design and selection

Course material

For the lectures, all course material is available through Toledo:

  • The material on the power point slides is the essential material the students should master
  • Background reading from text books, journal or conference papers is also available on Toledo.

Is also included in other courses

0.59 ects. Design of Digital Platforms: Exercises and Laboratory Sessions (B-KUL-H05E8a)

0.59 ECTSEnglishFormat: Assignment10 First term
Dehaene Wim |  N. |  Verplancke Joost (substitute)
POC Elektrotechniek

Content

The exercise sessions are used to introduce hardware description language, software description language and a design environment. During the exercise sessions, the students will practice with these description languages and design environments, so that they are ready to use  them in the design seminar.

 

Course material

Material is available on Toledo.

Format: more information

Students form teams of 2 or  3 students at the start of the semester. Students stay in this team for the design seminar.

Is also included in other courses

Evaluation

Evaluation: Design of Digital Platforms (B-KUL-H29J6b)

Type : Partial or continuous assessment with (final) exam during the examination period
Description of evaluation : Written
Type of questions : Closed questions
Learning material : Calculator

Explanation


The theory part has an exam during the examination period: it is a written exam.