SCHOOL

Engineering

ACADEMIC UNIT

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

LEVEL OF STUDIES

Undergraduate

COURSE CODE

ECE_ΓΚ906

SEMESTER

9

COURSE TITLE

Integrated Systems Design

INDEPENDENT TEACHING ACTIVITIES
if credits are awarded for separate components of the course, e.g. lectures, laboratory exercises, etc. If the credits are awarded for the whole of the course, give the weekly teaching hours and the total credits

WEEKLY TEACHING HOURS

CREDITS

Lectures and tutorials

3 x 13 weeks

3

Laboratory Exercises

2 x 10 weeks

2

Add rows if necessary. The organisation of teaching and the teaching methods used are described in detail at (d).

5

COURSE TYPE

general background,
special background, specialised general knowledge, skills development

Specialised general knowledge and skills development

PREREQUISITE COURSES:

Suggested courses: Digital Logic, Digital circuits and Systems, Mircoelectronics

LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION and EXAMINATIONS:

Greek/English if there is enough number of visiting students

IS THE COURSE OFFERED TO ERASMUS STUDENTS

Yes

COURSE WEBSITE (URL)

https://eclass.upatras.gr/courses/EE660/

Learning outcomes

The course learning outcomes, specific knowledge, skills and competences of an appropriate level, which the students will acquire with the successful completion of the course are described.

Consult Appendix A

·     Description of the level of learning outcomes for each qualifications cycle, according to the Qualifications Framework of the European Higher Education Area

·     Descriptors for Levels 6, 7 & 8 of the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning and Appendix B

·     Guidelines for writing Learning Outcomes

The main goals of the course are:

·       The in-depth understanding of the design flow of digital VLSI systems, the design goals, and the alternative architectures for developing high performance and low-power VLSI systems.

·       The study and application of proper methods, transformations and design techniques (retiming, parallelism,. pipeline, resource sharing, folding, unfolding…), covering all levels of the design flow (system, algorithmic, register, circuit) aiming at implementing complex algorithms on digital VLSI systems

·       The design of integrated systems characterized by high-speed, low-power consumption, high reliability, and low area

·       The development of the functional specifications of a system and the verification of its correct funcionality

·       The use of VHDL for describing digital VLSI systems

Upon the completion of the course the students:

·       They will have acquired in-depth knowledge concerning the alternative architectures for designing high performance VLSI systems

·       They will be able to apply methods and design techniques for implementing efficiently algorithms and applications on VLSI systems

·       They will be able to apply functional verification methods on the VLSI systems

·       They will have understood in details the design of low-power systems

·       They will have obtain through the laboratory exercises important experience in developing VLSI systems with the VHDL

General Competences

Taking into consideration the general competences that the degree-holder must acquire (as these appear in the Diploma Supplement and appear below), at which of the following does the course aim?

Search for, analysis and synthesis of data and information, with the use of the necessary technology

Adapting to new situations

Decision-making

Working independently

Team work

Working in an international environment

Working in an interdisciplinary environment

Production of new research ideas

Project planning and management

Respect for difference and multiculturalism

Respect for the natural environment

Showing social, professional and ethical responsibility and sensitivity to gender issues

Criticism and self-criticism

Production of free, creative and inductive thinking

……

Others…

…….

Search for, analysis and synthesis of data and information, with the use of the necessary technology, Decision-making, Project planning and management, Working independently, team work.

·       Introduction on VLSI systems: Principles and terminology, Design Flows.

·       System Level Design: Design goals, alternative system architectures (CPU-based, ASICs, reconfigurable computing systems), Intellectual Property (IP) cores, Interconnection systems

·       From algorithms to architectures: transforms for combinational computations (pipelining, replication, time sharing), data and memory management, transforms for non-recursive computations (retiming, pipeline, systolic conversion), for recursive computations (unfolding first-order loops, higher-order loops, time-invariant loops, nonlinear loops).

·        Επιβεβαίωση ορθής λειτουργίας: Καθορισμός λειτουργικών προδιαγραφών, ανάπτυξη μεθόδων επιβεβαίωσης ορθής λειτουργίας.

·       Functional Verification: Functional specifications, functional verification methods

·       Synchronous Digital Systems: Clocking of digital systems, clock skew, I/O clocking gated clock

·       Low-power Design: design techniques and methods for reducing power dissipation (dynamic power dissipation, leakage currents).

·       Design with VHDL: Design Flow, Data types and operators, Concurrent VHDL, Sequential VHDL, FSM description, System Design.

DELIVERY
Face-to-face, Distance learning, etc.

Face to face

USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Use of ICT in teaching, laboratory education, communication with students

The course is supported by an e-learning site at eclass.upatras.gr through which the course material, exercises, slides, announcements, laboratory exercises and homework, additional instructions and other useful material are shared.

TEACHING METHODS

The manner and methods of teaching are described in detail.

Lectures, seminars, laboratory practice, fieldwork, study and analysis of bibliography, tutorials, placements, clinical practice, art workshop, interactive teaching, educational visits, project, essay writing, artistic creativity, etc.

The student's study hours for each learning activity are given as well as the hours of non-directed study according to the principles of the ECTS

STUDENT PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

Description of the evaluation procedure

Language of evaluation, methods of evaluation, summative or conclusive, multiple choice questionnaires, short-answer questions, open-ended questions, problem solving, written work, essay/report, oral examination, public presentation, laboratory work, clinical examination of patient, art interpretation, other

Specifically-defined evaluation criteria are given, and if and where they are accessible to students.

The content of the course is examined by a final written examination at the end of the semester in which the student has to answer questions and solve exercises based on the course’s content. The grade ranges from 0 to 10.

For the part of the laboratory exercises, the student is examined in three phases, which are: a) during the execution of the exercise at the laboratory, b) through guided projects based on the content of the laboratory exercises, which the student process at home and delivers the corresponding report and c) final examination at the laboratory on the content of the laboratory exercises. The grade for the laboratory exercises is calculated by the following formula: Grade of lab exercises = (a) x 0.3 + (b) x 0.3 +(c) x 0.4. The grade ranges from 0 to 10.

The final grade of the course is calculated by the following formula: Final Course Grade = (Grade of final written examination) x 0.6 + (Grade of laboratory exercises) x 0.4.

The above formula applies only if the grade of each component is greater or equal to 5. Otherwise, it is considered that the student has failed.

- Suggested bibliography: textbook:

Greek textbooks:

·       “Circuit Design with VHDL”, V. Pedroni, edition Klidaritmos, 2007 (translated in Greek).

·       “Digital Systems – Modeling & Simulation with VHDL”, S. Sourvalas, M. Roumeliotis, Editions Tziola, 2008.

English textbooks :

·       “Digital Integrated Circuit Design: From VLSI Architectures to CMOS Fabrication”, H. Kaeslin, Cambridge University Press, 2008.