Topics

1. System design overview:
   management of large scale design, random logic based, gate-array based design -- Xilinx Foundation tools, FPGA Editor and Schematic Entry
2. Field-Programmable Gate Arrays:
   Architectures of Actel and Xilinx programmable gate arrays
3. Design Guidelines, design flow, debug
   design entry tools, technology mapping, placement and routing, programming, oscilloscope
4. Combinational logic design:
   Boolean minimization tools -- espresso, SIS
5. Finite state machines (FSM) design:
   state assignment, state minimization, Mealy and Moore machines, state encoding programs, one-hot encoding, design of counters
6. Timing issues and clocked system design:
   setup time and hold time, metastability, synchronization problems, clock skew and races, hazards, clock generation, clock rate
7. Design Interface:
   PC interface, port I/O and interrupts, SRAM interface
8. Design Prototyping: Borg boards
9. System Design:
   partitioning a large design across chips, making all the parts work together