Course Information for CS294-59: The Technology and Business of FPGAs
Fall 2010
Course Overview:
In the 25 years since their invention, field programmable gates
arrays (FPGAs) have evolved from simple logic devices, with a few tens
of logic devices, to full-fledged programmable systems-on-a-chip, with
hundreds of thousands of logic cells, hundreds of dedicated
arithmetic blocks, and embedded microprocessors. Consequently, the
market for FPGAs has evolved from simple random logic replacement to
high-performance applications in a variety of areas such as system
prototyping, networking, signal-processing, and scientific computing.
During this same period, more than 50 startup ventures have come and
gone trying to capitalize on the growing demand for programmable
logic. In this course we will take a detailed look at the technology
and business of FPGAs--what circuits and chip architectures have
worked, which ones haven't, and why.
Confirmed Guest Speakers:
Steve Trimberger, Xilinx Fellow
Mike Hutton, Director of Hardware Architecture at Tabula
Actel Representative, TBD
Rajit Manohar, Founder and Chief Scientist at Achronix
Carl Ebeling, Former CTO M2000/Abound
3 units. Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: CS150.
Class Schedule/Rooms
Lectures: Monday and Wednesday, 2:30-4:00PM, 320 Soda
Instructors
John
Wawrzynek, Professor, CS Division, EECS Department
Email: johnw at eecs
Office Hours: Mondays 9:00-10:30AM, 630 Soda Hall
John Lazzaro, Research Specialist, EECS Department
Course Grading
| 30% | Paper Summaries and Class Discussion |
| 70% | Project |
See also Departmental Grading Guidelines for Graduate Courses.