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VHDL Project Tutorial on Altera DE2 Board

Abstract

This paper presents a project tutorial designed for junior/senior students specializing in embedded systems. The project and tutorial provides a practical introduction to system-on-chip (SoC) design and general knowledge of FPGA and reconfigurable computing. The design is implemented on Altera DE2 board. The board is a small cost FPGA-based SoPC system designed for educational use. It has a wide range of I/O interfaces typically found in standard PC. This design can be also used in embedded system laboratory courses as well as a workshop on SoC. The tutorial is organized to be completed within 6-8 hours. A sample group of junior/senior students took this survey and the initial results are positive. The design and tutorial are available for public at the University of Sharjah website.

Introduction

A. SoC revolution

The last ten years witnessed a revolutionary shift in the traditional design of VLSI to a more modern approach which is SoC; i.e. a board with reconfigurable hardware (FPGA) and other added chips and I/O features. As a result, the embedded systems market in general increased drastically. Jackson estimated that 98% of processors are used in embedded systems1. Currently, the market for SoC is a $2 billion industry and is expected to grow more in the next few years.

To reflect on this, several leading universities are incorporating alternative teaching methods of Embedded Systems1-5. This change is of an agreement to proposals made by chief industry engineers. For example, G. Martin6 mentioned that few universities are changing its curriculum to reflect on industry's needs. Further, he added that the industry have a shortage of SoC engineers that universities are not providing.

B. Teaching Embedded Systems/SoC/FPGA design

Despite the improvement of reconfigurable hardware, FPGA, and EDA tools associated with them, FPGA/SoC design is still a difficult pedagogical task especially for undergraduate courses. The design requires a good understating of the fundamentals of Digital Logic Design as well as advanced knowledge of systems and interface. Teaching a board's interface with several different peripherals is not an easy task. The matter gets worse with the increase of flexibility of embedded chips. The more features added to the chip, the more difficult the teaching process. Perhaps, the most effective way to teach SoC is through laboratory and well guided tutorials7-12

C. Design project and guided tutorial

This paper offers a tutorial design project which is geared towards junior and senior students. The project is implemented on Altera DE2 board13. The project is offered in three phases. These phases reflect three design steps of embedded systems: digital logic design and implementation

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Nakkar, M. (2009, June), Vhdl Project Tutorial On Altera De2 Board Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--5192