SoC training course
description
The SoC training course was held from Winter 2001/ 2002 until Winter 2003/ 2003 at Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg. The main idea of the SoC training was, to challenge MSEE/ MSCS students with a near real-life experience: Work on a complex task with only partial knowledge. Use trial & error, and cut & paste approaches to solve the assignments.In detail, the following concept has been chosen:
- no prerequisites (especially no VHDL or Verilog experience required)
- complex assignment (megabytes of source code, thousands of pages documentation)
- encourage black-box thinking
- encourage trial with only partial knowledge
- encourage cut & paste mentality (avoid „not invented here“ thinking)
- mix hardware and software tasks (be cross-functional)
Besides being a lot of fun for me, the training course was sponsored by my employer, in order to meet the following goals:
- identify high potential students
- attract students to write their master theses at my employer
- research new technologies during master thesis
- hire graduates for hardware/ software engineering
- present company as a technology leader and potential employer
course materials
Winter 2001/ 2002 & Summer 2002: Game of Life
- week 1: Introduction to FPGA technology
- week 2: First steps with WebPACK ISE
- week 3 & 4: Assignment #1: Game of Life
- week 5 & 6: Assignment #2: Add restart functionality
- week 7 & 8: Assignment #3: Add USB interface
Winter 2002/ 2003 & Summer 2003: Xilinx‘ Microblaze
- week 1: Electronic design with FPGAs
- week 2: FPGA technology in detail
- week 3: Introduction to embedded systems
- week 4: Assignment #1: minimal system
- week 5: Assignment #2: simulating the system
- week 6: Assignment #3: using the debugger
- week 7: Assignment #4: expanding the system
- week 8: Assignment #5: creating your own peripherals