System-on-Chip Architectures and Modelling

The course is about the design of embedded systems consisting of hardware and software components.

Content

The course is about the design of embedded systems on silicon. We will study the following topics:

• System-on-chip design process
• System-on-chip modelling
• Function-architecture co-design
• Platform-based design
• Communication-networks on chip
• Operating systems for systems-on-chip
• Software design for embedded systems

The course is offered as part of the course package ("Fach") "System-on-Chip Design" for master students of Telematik.

Aims and objectives of the course. This course deals with current problems in designing complex embedded systems on silicon, also known as "systems on chip". Students will get an understanding of these by studying typical microchip architectures and by modelling these. As a group, we will design and implement a typical system.

This year's project: The topic of SoC 2011/12 was to design a PSoC-based alarming system. The project has been separated into eight work-packages that use two Virtex-6 FPGA based boards. One board implements Linux on the Xilinx Microblaze processor, the other board implements the Linux running on the Leon 3 processor. Self-desiged hardware components have been implemented for motion detection, sound detection, encryption of communication, and alarming over LEDs, GSM, and DVI output. The docu can be downloaded here.

Last years projects:

2010: The topic of SoC 2010/11 was the design of a secure RFID system. Students used the IAIK DemoTag to develop a programmable RFID tag based on a Spartan-3 FPGA. The tag implements an ISO 14443 compatible hardware interface, a 32-bit Microblaze processor, and supports Linux as an operating system. As a reader device, they used a self-designed hardware board with a customized ASIC chip (from the project POWERTRUST). The reader is connected over LAN and allows sending and receiving of RFID data over a network. The docu can be downloaded here.

2009: The topic of SOC2009/10 was to design an embedded smart-card reader. The reader is composed of a smart-card reader interface according to ISO 7816, a PowerPC/Leon processor, embedded Linux, and an RS232 interface to a PC. The docu can be downloaded here.

2008: The topic of SOC2008/09 was to build a networked RFID reader for high-frequency (HF) RFID devices. The reader is able to communicate with tags using the ISO15693 protocol. The reader is based on the Xilinx ML403-board that is connected over Ethernet to an RPC-based middleware running on a standard PC. The docu can be downloaded here.

2007: The topic of SOC2007/08 was to build a media client which is able to play MP3 songs. It has a network interface for accessing song repositories and offers a VGA display for visualizing user interaction. The Xilinx ML403-based board can also be operated by an IR remote control. Most of its funtionality is realized as software running under the latest Linux 2.6 kernel. The device can be configured over a webserver-based administration interface.

Teaching method. The course material is defined through the course project's problems. Each participant will specialize in a set of topics, and will present those topics to the whole group. With this knowledge, the whole group should be able to design, implement, and test the overall system.

Prerequisite. This course addresses advanced level students. Knowledge about software design, operating systems, networks, computer organization and digital design is necessary in order to be able to follow the course. There are no formal prerequisites.

Registration. There is a limit of about 10 students. Please, contact Michael.Hutter@iaik.tugraz.at between 01.09.2011 and 01.10.2011.

Examination method. Grading consists of individual contributions throughout the course's duration. In particular, these are presentations, participating in discussions, and implementation work. Registration for course.

News

Date	Title
18.10.2011	SOC 2011 will start at 10:00 in IAIK seminar room

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