19 research outputs found

    Generic low power reconfigurable distributed arithmetic processor

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    Higher performance, lower cost, increasingly minimizing integrated circuit components, and higher packaging density of chips are ongoing goals of the microelectronic and computer industry. As these goals are being achieved, however, power consumption and flexibility are increasingly becoming bottlenecks that need to be addressed with the new technology in Very Large-Scale Integrated (VLSI) design. For modern systems, more energy is required to support the powerful computational capability which accords with the increasing requirements, and these requirements cause the change of standards not only in audio and video broadcasting but also in communication such as wireless connection and network protocols. Powerful flexibility and low consumption are repellent, but their combination in one system is the ultimate goal of designers. A generic domain-specific low-power reconfigurable processor for the distributed arithmetic algorithm is presented in this dissertation. This domain reconfigurable processor features high efficiency in terms of area, power and delay, which approaches the performance of an ASIC design, while retaining the flexibility of programmable platforms. The architecture not only supports typical distributed arithmetic algorithms which can be found in most still picture compression standards and video conferencing standards, but also offers implementation ability for other distributed arithmetic algorithms found in digital signal processing, telecommunication protocols and automatic control. In this processor, a simple reconfigurable low power control unit is implemented with good performance in area, power and timing. The generic characteristic of the architecture makes it applicable for any small and medium size finite state machines which can be used as control units to implement complex system behaviour and can be found in almost all engineering disciplines. Furthermore, to map target applications efficiently onto the proposed architecture, a new algorithm is introduced for searching for the best common sharing terms set and it keeps the area and power consumption of the implementation at low level. The software implementation of this algorithm is presented, which can be used not only for the proposed architecture in this dissertation but also for all the implementations with adder-based distributed arithmetic algorithms. In addition, some low power design techniques are applied in the architecture, such as unsymmetrical design style including unsymmetrical interconnection arranging, unsymmetrical PTBs selection and unsymmetrical mapping basic computing units. All these design techniques achieve extraordinary power consumption saving. It is believed that they can be extended to more low power designs and architectures. The processor presented in this dissertation can be used to implement complex, high performance distributed arithmetic algorithms for communication and image processing applications with low cost in area and power compared with the traditional methods

    Decomposition and encoding of finite state machines for FPGA implementation

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    Introduction to Logic Circuits & Logic Design with Verilog

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    The overall goal of this book is to fill a void that has appeared in the instruction of digital circuits over the past decade due to the rapid abstraction of system design. Up until the mid-1980s, digital circuits were designed using classical techniques. Classical techniques relied heavily on manual design practices for the synthesis, minimization, and interfacing of digital systems. Corresponding to this design style, academic textbooks were developed that taught classical digital design techniques. Around 1990, large-scale digital systems began being designed using hardware description languages (HDL) and automated synthesis tools. Broad-scale adoption of this modern design approach spread through the industry during this decade. Around 2000, hardware description languages and the modern digital design approach began to be taught in universities, mainly at the senior and graduate level. There were a variety of reasons that the modern digital design approach did not penetrate the lower levels of academia during this time. First, the design and simulation tools were difficult to use and overwhelmed freshman and sophomore students. Second, the ability to implement the designs in a laboratory setting was infeasible. The modern design tools at the time were targeted at custom integrated circuits, which are cost- and time-prohibitive to implement in a university setting. Between 2000 and 2005, rapid advances in programmable logic and design tools allowed the modern digital design approach to be implemented in a university setting, even in lower-level courses. This allowed students to learn the modern design approach based on HDLs and prototype their designs in real hardware, mainly fieldprogrammable gate arrays (FPGAs). This spurred an abundance of textbooks to be authored, teaching hardware description languages and higher levels of design abstraction. This trend has continued until today. While abstraction is a critical tool for engineering design, the rapid movement toward teaching only the modern digital design techniques has left a void for freshman- and sophomore-level courses in digital circuitry. Legacy textbooks that teach the classical design approach are outdated and do not contain sufficient coverage of HDLs to prepare the students for follow-on classes. Newer textbooks that teach the modern digital design approach move immediately into high-level behavioral modeling with minimal or no coverage of the underlying hardware used to implement the systems. As a result, students are not being provided the resources to understand the fundamental hardware theory that lies beneath the modern abstraction such as interfacing, gate-level implementation, and technology optimization. Students moving too rapidly into high levels of abstraction have little understanding of what is going on when they click the “compile and synthesize” button of their design tool. This leads to graduates who can model a breadth of different systems in an HDL but have no depth into how the system is implemented in hardware. This becomes problematic when an issue arises in a real design and there is no foundational knowledge for the students to fall back on in order to debug the problem

    Introduction to Logic Circuits & Logic Design with VHDL

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    The overall goal of this book is to fill a void that has appeared in the instruction of digital circuits over the past decade due to the rapid abstraction of system design. Up until the mid-1980s, digital circuits were designed using classical techniques. Classical techniques relied heavily on manual design practices for the synthesis, minimization, and interfacing of digital systems. Corresponding to this design style, academic textbooks were developed that taught classical digital design techniques. Around 1990, large-scale digital systems began being designed using hardware description languages (HDL) and automated synthesis tools. Broad-scale adoption of this modern design approach spread through the industry during this decade. Around 2000, hardware description languages and the modern digital design approach began to be taught in universities, mainly at the senior and graduate level. There were a variety of reasons that the modern digital design approach did not penetrate the lower levels of academia during this time. First, the design and simulation tools were difficult to use and overwhelmed freshman and sophomore students. Second, the ability to implement the designs in a laboratory setting was infeasible. The modern design tools at the time were targeted at custom integrated circuits, which are cost- and time-prohibitive to implement in a university setting. Between 2000 and 2005, rapid advances in programmable logic and design tools allowed the modern digital design approach to be implemented in a university setting, even in lower-level courses. This allowed students to learn the modern design approach based on HDLs and prototype their designs in real hardware, mainly field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). This spurred an abundance of textbooks to be authored teaching hardware description languages and higher levels of design abstraction. This trend has continued until today. While abstraction is a critical tool for engineering design, the rapid movement toward teaching only the modern digital design techniques has left a void for freshman- and sophomore-level courses in digital circuitry. Legacy textbooks that teach the classical design approach are outdated and do not contain sufficient coverage of HDLs to prepare the students for follow-on classes. Newer textbooks that teach the modern digital design approach move immediately into high-level behavioral modeling with minimal or no coverage of the underlying hardware used to implement the systems. As a result, students are not being provided the resources to understand the fundamental hardware theory that lies beneath the modern abstraction such as interfacing, gate-level implementation, and technology optimization. Students moving too rapidly into high levels of abstraction have little understanding of what is going on when they click the “compile and synthesize” button of their design tool. This leads to graduates who can model a breadth of different systems in an HDL but have no depth into how the system is implemented in hardware. This becomes problematic when an issue arises in a real design and there is no foundational knowledge for the students to fall back on in order to debug the problem

    Evolutionary algorithms for synthesis and optimisation of sequential logic circuits

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    Considerable progress has been made recently 1n the understanding of combinational logic optimization. Consequently a large number of university and industrial Electric Computing Aided Design (ECAD) programs are now available for optimal logic synthesis of combinational circuits. The progress with sequential logic synthesis and optimization, on the other hand, is considerably less mature. In recent years, evolutionary algorithms have been found to be remarkably effective way of using computers for solving difficult problems. This thesis is, in large part, a concentrated effort to apply this philosophy to the synthesis and optimization of sequential circuits. A state assignment based on the use of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) for the optimal synthesis of sequential circuits is presented. The state assignment determines the structure of the sequential circuit realizing the state machine and therefore its area and performances. The synthesis based on the GA approach produced designs with the smallest area to date. Test results on standard fmite state machine (FS:M) benchmarks show that the GA could generate state assignments, which required on average 15.44% fewer gates and 13.47% fewer literals compared with alternative techniques. Hardware evolution is performed through a succeSSlOn of changes/reconfigurations of elementary components, inter-connectivity and selection of the fittest configurations until the target functionality is reached. The thesis presents new approaches, which combine both genetic algorithm for state assignment and extrinsic Evolvable Hardware (EHW) to design sequential logic circuits. The implemented evolutionary algorithms are able to design logic circuits with size and complexity, which have not been demonstrated in published work. There are still plenty of opportunities to develop this new line of research for the synthesis, optimization and test of novel digital, analogue and mixed circuits. This should lead to a new generation of Electronic Design Automation tools.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

    Evolutionary algorithms for synthesis and optimisation of sequential logic circuits.

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    Considerable progress has been made recently 1n the understanding ofcombinational logic optimization. Consequently a large number of universityand industrial Electric Computing Aided Design (ECAD) programs are nowavailable for optimal logic synthesis of combinational circuits. The progresswith sequential logic synthesis and optimization, on the other hand, isconsiderably less mature.In recent years, evolutionary algorithms have been found to be remarkablyeffective way of using computers for solving difficult problems. This thesis is,in large part, a concentrated effort to apply this philosophy to the synthesisand optimization of sequential circuits.A state assignment based on the use of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) for theoptimal synthesis of sequential circuits is presented. The state assignmentdetermines the structure of the sequential circuit realizing the state machineand therefore its area and performances. The synthesis based on the GAapproach produced designs with the smallest area to date. Test results onstandard fmite state machine (FS:M) benchmarks show that the GA couldgenerate state assignments, which required on average 15.44% fewer gatesand 13.47% fewer literals compared with alternative techniques.Hardware evolution is performed through a succeSSlOn ofchanges/reconfigurations of elementary components, inter-connectivity andselection of the fittest configurations until the target functionality is reached.The thesis presents new approaches, which combine both genetic algorithmfor state assignment and extrinsic Evolvable Hardware (EHW) to designsequential logic circuits. The implemented evolutionary algorithms are able todesign logic circuits with size and complexity, which have not beendemonstrated in published work.There are still plenty of opportunities to develop this new line of research forthe synthesis, optimization and test of novel digital, analogue and mixedcircuits. This should lead to a new generation of Electronic DesignAutomation tools

    Design and Verification of a Dual Port RAM Using UVM Methodology

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    Data-intensive applications such as Deep Learning, Big Data, and Computer Vision have resulted in more demand for on-chip memory storage. Hence, state of the art Systems on Chips (SOCs) have a memory that occupies somewhere between 50% to 90 % of the die space. Extensive Research is being done in the field of memory technology to improve the efficiency of memory packaging. This effort has not always been successful because densely packed memory structures can experience defects during the fabrication process. Thus, it is critical to test the embedded memory modules once they are taped out. Along with testing, functional verification of a module makes sure that the design works the way it has been intended to perform. This paper proposes a built-in self-test (BIST) to validate a Dual Port Static RAM module and a complete layered test bench to verify the module’s operation functionally. The BIST has been designed using a finite state machine and has been targeted against most of the general SRAM faults in a given linear time constraint of O(23n). The layered test bench has been designed using Universal Verification Methodology (UVM), a standardized class library which has increased the re-usability and automation to the existing design verification language, SystemVerilog

    Development of the control system of the ALICE Transition Radiation Detector and of a test environment for quality-assurance of its front-end electronics

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    Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde das Detektor-Kontroll-System (DCS) für den Übergangsstrahlungsdetektor (TRD) des ALICE Experiments am Large Hadron Collider entwickelt. Das TRD Kontrollsystem ist vollständig implementiert als eine detektororientierte Hierarchie von Objekten, welche sich wie End-Zustandsautomaten verhalten. Es kontrolliert und überwacht über 65 tausend front-end Elektronik (FEE) Einheiten, einige hundert low-voltage und eintausend high-voltage Kanäle, sowie weitere Subsysteme wie Kühlung und Gasversorgung. Die Inbetriebnahme des TRD Kontrollsystems fand während mehrerer Datennahmen mit ALICE unter Verwendung von Ereignissen aus der kosmischen Strahlung statt. In einem weiteren Teil dieser Arbeit wurde ein Test-setup zur Qualitätssicherung der Massenproduktion von über viertausend FEE Readout-boards mit insgesamt 1.2 Millionen elektronischen Auslesekanälen des TRD entwickelt. Die Hardware- und Softwarekomponenten werden im Detail beschrieben. Zusätzlich wurde vorher eine Reihe von Leistungsuntersuchungen durchgeführt, welche die Strahlungstoleranz des TRAP-chips überprüft, der den Haupt\-bestandteil der TRD-FEE darstellt
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