ASIC_Design

EE503R

Introduction to Digital ASIC Design

Dr. Yu-Kuen Lai

Department of Electrical Engineering

Chung Yuan Christian University

September 18, 2008

1 Course Objectives

This is an introductory level course on digital ASIC system design. Upon successfully completing the

course, student will be able to conduct cell-base ASIC design and optimization tasks. In the beginning of

this course, we will introduce the modern cell-base ASIC design flow in a top-down approach. The Verilog

hardware description language (HDL) will be covered based on the HDL grammar, coding and synthesis

guideline. The EDA tools such as logic simulator and synthesizer will be introduced as well for students in

several laboratories. We will focus on practical design methodologies including RTL simulation, synthesis,

timing analysis and design verification. In addition, we plan to use real-world design examples in the field

of computer architecture and networking for students to better comprehend the design flow and tradeoffs.

Students are required to learn state-of-the-art EDA tools and conduct several lab exercises. This is a project

oriented course. A final project with post-synthesis simulation is required at the end of the course.

2 Instructor

Dr. Yu-Kuen Lai

Tel:(03)265-4813

E-mail:ylai@cycu.edu.tw

*** If you want to e-mail me, please put “EE503R” in your subject line !! ***

3 Lecture Time & Place

The normal lecture is on Thursday 09:10~12:00 PM. The Lab will be held in Room 305 at the 3rd floor

of Electrical & Computer Engineering Building. Currently, the CAD tools ( Synopsys Design Compiler,

Cadence NC Verilog and Debussy) are installed in the PCs running CentOS Linux 4.4 operating system.

4 Textbook

"Advanced Digital Design With Verilog HDL" by Michael D. Ciletti, Prentice Hall.

5 Reference books (optional)

Verilog Styles for Synthesis of Digital Systems" by David R. Smith and Paul D. Franzon, Prentice

Hall, 2000, (ISBN:0-201-61860-5)

"Verilog for Digital Design", Frank Vahid , Roman Lysecky 2007 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

978-0-470-05262-4

"HDL Chip Design" a practical guide for designing, synthesizing and simulating ASICs and FPGAs

using VHDL or Verilog, by Douglas J. Smith, Doone Publications, 2000, (ISBN:0-9651934-3-8)

"Introduction to Computing Systems from Bits & Gates to C & Beyond", Yale N. Patt & Sanjay J.

Patel

6 Course Topics

1. Introduction to Digital ASIC Design

2. Logic Design with Verilog-Basic Language Constructs

3. Introduction to Design Environment and CAD tools

4. Introduction to Logic Synthesis-Verilog Structural & Procedural

5. Procedural Specification

6. Design Approaches for Single Modules

7. Common Problems & Mistakes

8. Logic Synthesis-Advanced Topics

9. Post Synthesis Simulation

10. Cell Characterization & Static Timing Analysis

11. Fundamental of Microprocessor Architecture

12. Introduction to FPGA

13. Hardware Functional Verification

14. Student Paper Presentation

15. Projects Presentation

7 Final Project

The purposes of doing final project is to let students gain some real-world design experiences by using the

state-of-the-art EDA tools. Students are required to design the given projects in a group of two.

More details of the project guidelines will be announced later in the class.

7.1 Some Project Topics

1. Ethernet Media Access Controller (MAC)

A simplified 3-port 10/100/1000 Ethernet Media Access Controller with 2 regular 10/100/1000

Mbps ports and a microprocessor host interface.

Based on a shared memory architecture, this MAC has to be able to perform frame validation

based on CRC-32 checking and port forwarding.

http://www.opencores.org/projects.cgi/web/ethmac/overview

2. Microcontroller Design

LC3: This is a 16-bit microcontroller. You need to implement the complete datapath and controller

with selected instructions in the book of "Introduction to Computing Systems from Bits

& Gates to C & Beyond", Yale N. Patt & Sanjay J. Pate.

Opne RISC

– Add 2-way set associativity cache.

– Physical Design of OpenRISC with optimization on speed, area and power.

Synthesizable VHDL Model of 8051

Leon Processor

– European Sapce Agency IP Cores Library LEON-2 page

– Simply RISC

– OpenSPARC released by Sun Microsystems

Project of Your Own Research (Subject to instructor’s approval! )

8 Grading

Labs & Homeworks 30%

Final Projects /w Presentation 35%

Student Paper Presentation 15%

Midterm Exam 20%

9 Late Policy

Homeworks, Labs and projects are required to submit online to the i-learning course webpage on time. The

late submition will be deducted 10% each day.

10 Academic Integrity

Please note the existence of the University policy on academic integrity. Each assignment (lab and homework)

has to be done individually (or group) unless specified. That is, you can NOT copy other student’s

work and claim for your own.