Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics

The objective of the course is to introduce software engineering students to the operation of hardware elements of IT devices, and their implementation technologies. The aim is also to show the opportunities of the modern microelectronics in computer technology, and to discuss the limitations of physical implementation and trends. Software engineering students will understand and experience in the laboratory exercises that hardware and software development is done using similar principles and tools.

  

The student who successfully completes the subject:

(K1) will be aware of the basic operation and limitations of the IT devices

(K1) knows the basic physical structure of an electronic system

(K2) understands the most important concepts of the modern digital design and development tools, will be able to cooperate with electrical engineers on digital design

(K2) can apply elementary considerations of the performance and cooling requirements of a system

(K2) will have basic knowledge of the sensor technology and analog-digital conversion

1. Introduction, abstraction levels of IT device design, brief summary of the technologies used. Examples: tablet structure, components, sensors, assembly technology. Integrated circuits used in modern IT devices, development trends, roadmaps. Basic concepts of the VLSI.

2. Elementary semiconductor physics and the structure of the MOS transistor. Operation of the MOS transistor as a digital switch. Realization of the digital gates. The static CMOS logic: inverter, basic gates. Gate delay and power.

3. Physical implementation of microprocessors and related logic. Circuit implementation of combinational and sequential logic circuits, latches, flip-flops. Arithmetical circuits. Special components of the high-speed digital systems.

4. Digital (IC) system design. The design flow. Hardware description languages. Simulation: system-level, logic and circuit simulation. System level design and verification using HDL. High-level, logical and layout synthesis. The hard and soft IP.

5. Operative and cache memory technology. Operation of the static RAM memory cell. Multi-port SRAM, register array circuit implementation. Dynamic RAM memory technologies. Content addressable memory. ROM memory technology,  NAND and NOR arrangement. Flash EEPROM memory cell, operation and technology.

6. The input and output. ESD protection. Driving buses. Clock generation and distribution. IT equipment power supply. Rectification, DC-DC conversion, voltage stabilization. Characteristics of battery operation and batteries.

7. ASIC circuits, system on a chip (SOC). Basic properties of ASIC circuits. Semi-custom ASIC, gate-array, standard cell circuits, cell-based ASIC. Programmable logic devices. Structure and properties of field programable gate arrays.

8. Sensors used in desktop and mobile computing: temperature, displacement, acceleration, touch detection. Integrated sensors, CMOS image sensor. Integrated sensor manufacturing technology, MEMS.

9. Display devices and their control. TFT, backlight implementation, light emitting diode and laser diode. Touch screen technology.

10. AD/DA conversion. Sampling. Ideal and real converters, properties of A/D and D/A converters. Properties of major A/D and D/A converter architectures.

11. Power and temperature in modern IT devices. Thermal resistance and heat capacity. Passive and forced cooling. System-wide reduction of consumption. Thermal problems of servers and data centers.

12. Fundamentals of electronics technology. Printed circuit boards, passive and active components, packaging of ICs.

13. Outlook of the Modern CMOS technology. Scaling issues. Trends and new solutions in microelectronics. Outlook towards nanoelectronics.

 

 

Laboratories:

1. Design, modeling and simulation using HDL

2. Physical implementation using FPGA

3. Design for SoC

4. Programming of the SoC

5. Testing and modifying a complex example (e.g. machine learning accelerator).

One lecture (2 hours) in each week. Seminars and laboratories biweekly.

Dr. András Poppe, professor

Dr. Márta Rencz, professor

Dr. Sándor Ress, associate professor