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. odo.ecs.umass.edu, sisko.ecs.umass.edu). If you follow the following directions you should be able to run all the necessary software without problems. 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 Prof. Tessier if you have specific installation questions. Please follow the following steps for best results on a Unix system:
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. sisko or odo) 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
Other references were assigned reading for the lectures.