ELE-3603 Programmable circuits - 5 stp

This course introduces the students to digital circuit design using VHDL. Emphasis will be put on understanding the difference between normal programming of instructions running in a CPU and digital circuit synthesis in an FPGA. The students will get experience in designing digital circuits in an FPGA in many areas:

• Combinatorial circuits, e.g. comparators, (de)multiplexers, encoders, and adders/subtractors.
• Ordinary sequential circuits using Register Transfer Logic (RTL), e.g. data flip-flops, shift-registers, and counters.
• Application specific sequential circuits coded as Finite State Machines with Datapath (FSMD), using patterns in VHDL programming to ensure that timing requirements in the FPGA are met.
• Applications can be traffic lights, line coding in tele communication, UART, SPI, I2C, CPU, etc.
• Different types of simulation of VHDL code to verify the functionality of the implementation.
• How to use the User Constraint File (UCF), be able to synthesise, implement, and program a design to an FPGA.
• Use of IP-cores for rapid implementation of advanced circuitry.

Use of advanced debugging tools, including IP-cores for Virtual I/O (VIO) og Integrated Logic Analyser (ILA).

A relevant undergraduate Bachelor degree in Engineering program in power electronics and electrical machines. Basic knowledge in power systems is also an advantage.

In addition, the following requirements must be met:

- minimum 25 credits in mathematics (equivalent to Mathematical Methods 1, 2 og 3), 5 credits in statistics and 7,5 ects i physics on a higher level is required.

Application code: 9371

After completing the subject, the candidate will have the following learning outcome:

Knowledge:

The candidate knows:

• The principles for the design av development of FPGA based systems.
• Describe how to represent numbers and letters in VHDL.
• Understand the difference between combinatorial and sequential logic.
• Understand the difference between signals and variables in VHDL.
• Understand how to use coding patterns to separate the combinatorial and the sequential part of a state machine to ensure adherence to the timing constraints of an FPGA.
• Principles for testing and trouble shooting on digital circuits.

Skills:

The candidate can

• Use tools and software for digital design.
• Write VHDL code from a requirements specification.
• Write VHDL code for combinatorial circuits.
• Write VHDL code for sequential circuits.
• Use coding patterns to build a state machine in VHDL that meets the timing constraints in an FPGA.

Use Vitrual I/O (VIO) and Integrated Logic Analyser (ILA) to test, troubleshoot and verify the functionality of a digital circuit.