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SoC Design : 2010/11: 12 Lectures to CST II
A current-day system on a chip (SoC) consists of several different
microprocessor subsystems together with memories and I/O
interfaces. This course covers SoC design and modelling techniques
with emphasis on architectural exploration, assertion-driven design
and the concurrent development of hardware and embedded software.
This is the ``front end'' of the design automation tool chain. (Back
end material, such as design of individual gates, layout, routing and
fabrication of silicon chips is not covered.)
A percentage of each lecture is used to develop a running example.
Over the course of the lectures, the example evolves into a System On
Chip demonstrator with CPU and bus models, device models and device drivers. All code
and tools are available online so the examples can be reproduced and
exercises undertaken. The main languages used are Verilog and C++
using the SystemC library.
Lecture Groups and Syllabus:
- Verilog RTL design with examples. Event-driven simulation with and
without delta cycles, basics of synthesis to gates algorithm and design examples.
Structural hazards, pipelining, memories and multipliers.
- SystemC overview. The major components of the SystemC C++ class library
for hardware modelling are covered with code fragments and demonstrations.
- Basic SoC Components and Bus Structures. CPU, RAM, Timers,
DMA, GPIO, Network, Bus structure. Interrupts, DMA and device
drivers. Examples. Basic bus bridging.
- ESL + Transactional Modelling. Electronic systems level (ESL) design.
Architectural exploration. Firmware modelling methods. Blocking and non-blocking transaction
styles. Approximate and loose timing styles. Queue and contention modelling. Examples.
- ABD: Assertions and Monitors. Types of assertion
(imperative, safety, liveness, data conservation). Assertion-based
design (ABD). PSL/SVA assertions. Temporal logic compilation of
fragments to monitoring FSM.
- Further Bus Structures.
Busses used in today's SoCs (OPB/BVCI, AHB and AXI).
Glue logic synthesis. Transactor synthesis. Pipeline Tolerance. Network on chip.
- Engineering Aspects: FPGA and ASIC design flow. Cell
libraries. Market breakdown: CPU/Commodity/ ASIC/FPGA. Further tools used for design of
FPGA and ASIC (timing and power modelling, place and route, memory
generators, power gating, clock tree, self-test and scan insertion).
Dynamic frequency and voltage scaling.
- Future approaches Only presented if time
permits. Non-examinable. Recent developments: BlueSpec, IP-XACT, Kiwi,
Custom processor synthesis.
In addition to these topics, the running example will demonstrate
a few practical aspects of device bus interface design, on chip
communication and device control software. Students are encouraged
to try out and expand the examples in their own time.