Welcome to the 559/659 Course Home Page! This serves as the syllabus for the course. The URL is: http://www.ecs.umass.edu/ece/vspgroup/burleson/courses/559/
Instructor: Wayne Burleson, Professor,
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Tel: 413-545-2382,
Email: burleson (at-symbol) ecs.umass.edu
Office: KEB309C,
Office Hours : Wed/Thurs 12-1
The course will consist of two types of projects: 1) Design,
and 2) Analysis. Design projects will involve the specification, design,
verification and analysis of a substantial component of a VLSI system-on-a-
chip, using either custom, standard cell or FPGA technology.
Analysis projects will involve studying the statistical impact of various
parameters such as process variation, noise, temperature, and soft errors on
performance, power and reliability. Design projects will
typically use a .18u or .13u CMOS technology while
analysis projects may look toward more futuristic technologies such as 70nm and
below. Both types of projects may result in publications and possible
extensions into theses. Both types of projects may involve test-chips.
Groups of 3-4 students will work together, partitioning tasks, and then
presenting their work in the form of 4 design reviews. Some test chips may be
sent out for fabrication by MOSIS at the end of the semester,
however fabrication is not required for all projects. Deep sub-micron
design issues will be an important aspect of the course and are reviewed in D.
Sylvester and K. Keutzer, Getting
to the Bottom of Deep Submicron, Proceedings of International Conference on
Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), pp. 203-211, 1998.
Pre-requisites: Introductory course in VLSI design (i.e. ECE 558/658). A grade of INC in 558/658 does NOT satsify the pre-req.
Grading:
Review will consist of oral, written and electronic formats. Some projects will result in test-chips that will be fabricated by MOSIS.
Lectures: There are no regular lectures for this course, however class-wide meetings will be held at Monday and Wednesday 1:25-2:15, room Marston 220. Weekly meeting times between each group and the Prof and TA will be scheduled.
Details on Design Reviews : I will update these as the semester progresses, but this should give you some idea of what to expect for each review. Here are some General Guidelines for Design Reviews
Schedule (NEW Updated schedule for Spring 2006)
|
Date |
Event |
Hand-in |
Notes |
|
Jan 28 |
Introductory lecture |
|
Syllabus (this page), project ideas |
|
Jan 30 |
Introductory lecture |
|
Project Assignment |
|
Feb 4 |
No lecture |
|
- |
|
Feb 8 |
Introductory lecture |
|
CAD tool demonstration |
|
Week of Feb 18 |
Proposal Review |
TBD |
|
|
Week of March 13 |
Feasibility Review |
TBD |
|
|
Week of May 1 |
Implementation Review |
TBD |
|
|
Week of May 15 |
Integration Review |
TBD |
Required reading:
Course Objectives (updated Spring 2008):
Past Projects
Other information