Digital System Construction (Digital Systemkonstruktion), 7,5p
Instructors:
Sam Silverstein, tel 5537 8693 ( silver@fysik.su.se
)
Eduardo Valdes Santurio, tel 5537 899 (eduardo.valdes@fysik.su.se
)
Prerequisites for course (recommended):
Electronics experience corresponding to Elektronikens Grunder (7.5hp), as well as programming experience in a high-level language.
Course goals:
The course teaches important concepts and techniques used in digital system design,
as well as modern methods for developing, implementing and testing them using modern design software
and high-level hardware description language.
Course description
The course has a heavy emphasis on practical experience. Instruction consists of
lectures and supervised laboratory exercises. The lab exercises include design and
simulation of digital circuits in the VHDL hardware description language, as well as
implementation and testing in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), using modern
design software.
Tutorials in microcontroller programming and circuit board design are also included.
Course literature
In addition to the lecture visuals, there are some good VHDL textbooks available.
Free Range VHDL by Bryan Mealy and Fabrizio Tappero is a very well-written textbook. It was
developed with the intention of being freely available to everybody, and you can download a
pdf copy here. A paperback version can be purchased online from the
Free Range Factory website.
The first few chapters of this manual by Synario (now defunct) is also a good
introduction to VHDL, including the essential constructs of the VHDL language and tips for effective
implementation.