12 units
System on a Chip designs (SoC) result from the increased density of transistors that can be placed on a single chip. SoC designs are characterized by functional complexity which can not be effectively accommodated by traditional hardware-only design methodologies and physical constraints that require single chips to utilize multiple interacting clock domains. The embedded computer system architectures on these chips include concurrent software executing on one or more processors, operating system schedulers, and hardware models, including application specific functionality, busses and networks. Through lectures, readings, presentations, discussions, and projects, this course presents the fundamental models and design steps that enable the design of SoC from the software through the logic levels, with the goal of integrating into lower level VLSI design methodologies.
This course considers all manner of concurrency in the way digital computation advances state. As a result, many of the modeling techniques are applicable to other embedded systems in which performance and architecture are designed with the system-level behavior and software. Fundamental modeling considerations for digital computation, communication, and state will be considered, such as global time vs. self-timing, shared state (memory) vs. point-to-point communications, finite vs. unbounded state, and function vs. architecture. Design techniques such as hardware/software codesign, which considers the concurrent design of systems that include hardware architecture and software trade-offs, will be presented along with behavioral synthesis and verification techniques (such as model checking). The course will explore the fundamental differences in hardware and software as models of computation, taxonomize existing modeling tools and system design techniques, and discuss future directions for system level modeling tools and abstractions.
This course is for graduate or upper-level undergraduate students with an interest in modeling of digital computation: hardware, architecture, software and system-level. A background in a fundamental logic and software course is required, along with at least one more advanced computer engineering, real-time, or operating system course.
4 hrs. lec.
Prerequisites: 18-348 or 18-349, and senior or graduate standing.
Last updated on March 21, 2007
Computer Hardware
Software Systems and Computer Networking
This course is currently being offered.
F07, F06, F04, F03, F02
Please note that the course history information is incomplete and/or may reflect different courses offered under the same course number.