Computer Science 250: VLSI Systems Design

Fall 2012

Prof. John Wawrzynek

Prof. Krste Asanović

Dr. John Lazzaro

Prof. Jonathan Bachrach

Lectures: Tuesday and Thursday, 11AM-12:30PM, 320 Soda
Section: Wednesday, 5-6PM, 320 Soda

Welcome to the Fall 2012 CS250 web page. More details to follow.


Detailed course info
How to setup your class account for the labs
More information about the project topics presented in lecture
Handouts and other documentation you may find useful (only accessible from UCB networks)

Course Calendar with Handouts

Subject to Change.

Week Date Instr Lecture Assignments
1 Thu Aug 23 JW Lecture 1: VLSI Introduction. Chip-level alternatives: ASIC, FPGAs, full-custom, gate-array, via-programmable. IC Fabrication. RTL and other design representations. Quick tool flow overview. Overview of course structure and student requirements. Lecture slides.  
2 Tue Aug 28 JB Lecture 2: Introduction to Chisel hardware description language. Lecture slides.  
Thu Aug 30 JB Lecture 3: Chisel Part II. Lecture slides. Lab 1 out
3 Tue Sep 4 JW Lecture 4: Physical Realities. Part I: Area & Timing. Circuit and wire-delay modeling. Circuit-level timing closure. Static timing tools. Lecture slides.  
Thu Sep 6 JL Lecture 5: Physical Realities, Part II: Energy and power. Power consumption mechanisms. Power modeling and power-aware design overview. Power analysis tools. Power grid tools. Lecture slides.  
4 Tue Sep 11 JL Lecture 6: Image Processing : Theory and Practice Lecture slides. Lab 1 due (before class)
Lab 2 out
Thu Sep 13 JL Lecture 7: Image Processing Part 2. Project details. Lecture slides.  
5 Tue Sep 18 KA Lecture 8: Overview of hardware design patterns. Lecture slides.  
Thu Sep 20 KA Lecture 9: Memory and Memory Design Patterns. Lecture slides.  
6 Tue Sep 25 KA Lecture 10: Design patterns for processing units and communication links. Lecture slides.  
Thu Sep 27 JL
JB
Lecture 11: Design verification strategies and Chisel based testing. Lecture slides Part 1 Part 2  
7 Tue Oct 2 JL Lecture 12: CMOS imagers Lecture slides. Project Proposal due (before class)
Thu Oct 4 All Initial project proposal presentations. Lab 3 out
8 Tue Oct 9 All Private project meetings with groups.  
Thu Oct 11 All Private project meetings with groups.  
9 Tue Oct 16 All Private project meetings with groups.  
Thu Oct 18 All Private project meetings with groups.  
10 Tue Oct 23 All Public project progress presentations.  
Thu Oct 25 All Public project progress presentations.  
11 Tue Oct 30 All Private project meetings with groups.  
Thu Nov 1 All Private project meetings with groups.  
13 Tue Nov 6 All Private project meetings with groups.  
Thu Nov 8 All Private project meetings with groups.  
12 Tue Nov 13 All Public project progress presentations.  
Thu Nov 15 All Public project progress presentations.  
14 Tue Nov 20 TBD Guest Lecture  
Thur Nov 22   Thanksgiving  
15 Tue Nov 27 All Private project meetings with groups.  
Thu Nov 29 All Private project meetings with groups.  
  Tue Dec 4 All Final Project Presentations : 405 Soda  
  Thu Dec 6 All Final Project Presentations : 405 Soda  
  Wed Dec 12 All Final Project Reports Due at 11:59PM (NO EXTENSIONS)