| Subject Area | Computer Hardware and Architecture |
|---|---|
| Semester | Semester 6 – Spring |
| Type | Elective |
| Teaching Hours | 4 |
| ECTS | 6 |
| Prerequisites |
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| Course Site | https://courses.e-ce.uth.gr/ECE340/ |
| Course Director |
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Course curriculum follows:
- Introduction to Embedded Systems
- FPGA/ASIC design methodology
- Introduction to HDL and Verilog
- Modern FPGAs – FPGA architecture and technology
- Xilinx Spartan6 as case study
- Timing issues – Synthesis, Placement and Routing in FPGAs
- Design methodologies
- Specification, Planning, Review, Implementation, Testing
- Embedded Processors
- Case study : Microblaze processor, Hardware and Software
- Communication in Embedded Systems
- Buses (PLB, OPB, DCR), Switches, Network On Chips technologies
- DRAM technology and organization – Memory Controllers
- System On Chip design
- Hardware/Software partition and co-design
- Real-life example of an SoC
- Architectural Synthesis tools
This course covers the principles of embedded systems inherent to many hardware platforms and applications being developed for ubiquitous systems, robotics, communication and networking systems, multimedia devices, etc.
CE435 is lab-oriented advanced undergraduate/graduate course geared towards the development of skills to design and implement practical embedded systems. The course includes weekly lab sessions, in which the students will use FPGA boards and tools to design, optimize and test hardware and software components of an embedded system. The weekly labs will gradually build a processor-based System On Chip to implement an application using a variety of methods: running as a single thread in an embedded processor, running in a dual-processor system, and as a hardware accelerator. The students will evaluate the performance of each solution and will present their work in a technical report.
The course also includes a project experience geared towards the development of skills to design and implement practical embedded systems. Students will work in teams on an innovative project that will include hands-on design of a prototype of an embedded system of their own choice. Although FPGAs is a potential project platform, students are free to choose any platform such as DSPs, ARM microcontrollers, etc. The lecture content will cover background material intended to complement the project work, and will also cover case studies of industrial embedded systems.
Students that have successfully concluded the course will:
- have excellent knowledge of the structure and functionality of a complex System On Chip.
- She will have acquired new knowledge on hardware and software design of SoC-based systems.
- She will have mastered practical skills on concepts