FPGA Design for Embedded Systems Specialization

This course can also be taken for academic credit as ECEA 5360, part of CU Boulder’s Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree.

Programmable Logic has become more and more common as a core technology used to build electronic systems. By integrating soft-core or hardcore processors, these devices have become complete systems on a chip, steadily displacing general purpose processors and ASICs. In particular, high performance systems are now almost always implemented with FPGAs. This course will give you the foundation for FPGA design in Embedded Systems along with practical design skills. You will learn what an FPGA is and how this technology was developed, how to select the best FPGA architecture for a given application, how to use state of the art software tools for FPGA development, and solve critical digital design problems using FPGAs. You use FPGA development tools to complete several example designs, including a custom processor. If you are thinking of a career in Electronics Design or an engineer looking at a career change, this is a great course to enhance your career opportunities. Hardware Requirements: You must have access to computer resources to run the development tools, a PC running either Windows 7, 8, or 10 or a recent Linux OS which must be RHEL 6.5 or CentOS Linux 6.5 or later. Either Linux OS could be run as a virtual machine under Windows 8 or 10. The tools do not run on Apple Mac computers. Whatever the OS, the computer must have at least 8 GB of RAM. Most new laptops will have this, or it may be possible to upgrade the memory.

This course can also be taken for academic credit as ECEA 5361, part of CU Boulder’s Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree.

Hardware Description Languages for Logic Design enables students to design circuits using VHDL and Verilog, the most widespread design methods for FPGA Design. It uses natural learning processes to make learning the languages easy. Simple first examples are presented, then language rules and syntax, followed by more complex examples, and then finally use of test bench simulations to verify correctness of the designs. Lecture presentations are reinforced by many programming example problems so that skill in the languages is obtained. After completing this course, each student will have fundamental proficiency in both languages, and more importantly enough knowledge to continue learning and gaining expertise in Verilog and VHDL on their own.

This course will introduce you to all aspects of development of Soft Processors and Intellectual Property (IP) in FPGA design. You will learn the extent of Soft Processor types and capabilities, how to make your own Soft Processor in and FPGA, including how to design the hardware and the software for a Soft Processor. You will learn how to add IP blocks and custom instructions to your Soft Processor. After the Soft Processor is made, you learn how to verify the design using simulation and an internal logic analyzer. Once complete you will know how to create and use Soft Processors and IP, a very useful skill.

This course consists of 4 modules, approximately 1 per week for 4 weeks. Each module will include an hour or two of video lectures, reading assignments, discussion prompts, and an end of module assessment.