CSCE 611 - High-level VLSI Systems Design
Department Course Description
The following link will take you to the existing departmental syllabus for this course. This reflects the course content in semesters' past, and is a starting point for our revamping of the course structure, objectives, contents and expected outcomes. Namely, my emphasis is on an understanding of the VLSI design activities associated with taking a system-level description, and constructing and evaluating different custom-logic architectures for the system's components. For the most part, we can think of the core functional aspects of a system as being comprised of key algorithms or protocols. The process of high-level abstract design for creating digital systems is to devise appropriate and efficient register-level architectures for such system-level algorithms and protocol descriptions. We will use the Extended Algorithmic State Machine method--developed by Kobayashi and Davis--as the principal modeling method in this class. We will create ASM models with concurrency and synchronization to implement architecture descriptions for algorithms and protocols of interest.
611—Conceptual Modeling Tools for CAD. (3) (Prereq: CSCE 211 or 213, CSCE 245) Design techniques for logic systems; emphasis on higher-level CAD tools such as hardware description languages and conceptual modeling. Link to Syllabus on Department Web Page.
Course Content Materials
| Course Syllabus & Text | Course Lecture Notes & Resources | Homework Assignments |
Course Pages Content Change History
I will post stuff of importance to the class here. Please check this once or twice a week, as I will tend to post relevant information about any changes to class or assignment schedules here first.
| Date of Change | Nature of Change | Discussion of Change |
| 1/9/04 | Created new web page structure for Spring 04 course. | I'm a bit late getting this new web page up. |
| 4/21/04 | Updated grading policy. | Aside from other posted changes during the semester, I have updated the grading policy in light of the increased emphasis on the projects to determine the grade. See the Syllabus & Text page for more details. |
The Importance of This Course for Computer Engineering
A key aspect of computer engineering design is the use of an iterative enhancement style of design method, allowing us to explore the space of possible architectures and designs to realize the algorithms and protocols under study. The practice of engineering design in our discipline involves the use of a number of design methods, tools, and processes. It is the systematic use of these--along with the use of your creative minds---that enable one to rise to the level of excellence in practicing computer engineering design. It is my hope that--through observation and direct experience in this course--that you will be able to start on the road to mastery of the principles and best practices of the computer engineering discipline.