What are the most desirable characteristics of a digital system? What makes a computer powerful, is it its hardware or its software? What are the essential differences between a software program and programmable hardware? How can you build hardware that can adapt, and why would that be a useful feature? How do you judge a digital system: do you want the fastest, the least expensive, the smallest, the lowest power? How do you make sure that your work has impact? The goals for this class are to answer these and other related questions so that you can pursue successful technical careers by becoming lifelong learners, technical experts, great team players, eager to embrace the challenges brought by the quick changes (new technologies, new theories, new paradigms, new languages) that characterize the computer engineering field.

Top down IC design methodology emphasizing synthesis and automated physical design using CAD tools from Synopsys, in particular VCS for simulation, DC for logic synthesis and ICC for place and route. Several embedded core choices will be investigated, including cores from Opencores.com, from the FabScalar project, a simple 8051 8-bit core, a Sparc compatible Leon 32-bit core, and a modern multithredded multicore Sun Niagara design. The target technology will be a state of the art 90nm CMOS technology.

The laboratory assignments in ECE 4501-00 are one of several required pre/corequisites for the CpE Capstone project.