This page holds information you need to complete problem set 1 for the course.
Click here for a pdf version of the problem set 1 description.
The homework assignment can be completed using any computer system you wish although I will only be providing support for the UMass ECS Solaris computing facility (e.g. barney.ecs.umass.edu). It is assumed that the student is familiar with basic Unix commands such as ‘tar’ and ‘gzip’ and the use of basic makefiles. Please contact the TA (Deepak Unnikrishnan - unnikrishnan@ecs.umass.edu) if you have specific installation questions.
If you choose to use barney, please note that you will need to perform the following steps in addition to the steps noted below for a generic Unix system:
1. ECS computer barney does not include make and gcc in a user’s execution path by default. You must include /usr/sfw/bin in your execution path. One way to do this is to modify the file .cshrc in your home directory to include a line such as the following: set path = ($path /usr/sfw/bin)
2. ECS computer barney uses ‘gmake’ rather than ‘make’. You can simply type ‘gmake’ wherever the homework assignment indicates ‘make’ or you can alias make to gmake by including the following line in .cshrc: alias make gmake
3. As described in the problem set 1 description, you will need to use foreach.script files to generate results for some experiments. Before executing each foreach.script file, change each instance of the word ‘make’ in the file to ‘/usr/sfw/bin/gmake’
Please follow the following steps for best results on a generic Unix system (including barney after you have made the changes suggested above):
1. Click here for needed binary, source, and circuit description files. Note: When unzipped this directory will take up about 2 MB.
2. Gunzip (using ‘gunzip ps1.tar.gz’ and ‘tar xvf ps1.tar’) the file to create a directory ps1 and a series of subdirectories.
3. Go to the VPR web site and download the source for VPR, version 4.30. Your downloaded file (vpr_430_tar) will also include t-vpack.
4. Move the file vpr_430_tar into subdirectory ps1/ps1_software
5. Untar the VPR files using ‘tar xvf vpr_430_tar’. Note: This will take up about 3 MB
6. Note that the standard distribution of VPR works on Solaris so if you are using a Solaris machine (e.g. barney) you can skip this step. If you are using a Linux computer, replace the makefile in ps1/ps1_software/vpr with this one
7. Delete all .o files in ‘trans_count’, ‘t-vpack’, and ‘vpr’ subdirectories and use ‘make’ in each subdirectory to create binaries for your machine
8. You can perform experiments using subdirectories in the ‘tests’ subdirectory.
A reference to help you complete the homework:
D. Lewis, et al, The Stratix II Logic and Routing Architecture, International Symposium on Field Programmable Gate Arrays , February 2005, pdf
I. Kuon and J. Rose, Measuring the Gap Between FPGAs and ASICs, International Symposium on Field Programmable Gate Arrays , February 2006, pdf
Other references were assigned reading for the lectures.