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Module

EEE8088 : Reconfigurable Hardware Design

  • Offered for Year: 2024/25
  • Module Leader(s): Dr Alex Bystrov
  • Lecturer: Dr Matthew Dyson
  • Owning School: Engineering
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Semester 2 Credit Value: 20
ECTS Credits: 10.0
European Credit Transfer System

Aims

This coursework module is aimed at development of knowledge and skills for highly efficient with respect to power, performance and time to market implementation of signal processing, interfacing and control blocks. The aims of the:


Knowledge, skills and design experience on reconfigurable hardware platforms (FPGA chips) in the context of their Degree Programmes.

Needs of the modern electronics and comms industry following the major design trends outlined in the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (current edition).

Consistency in preparation of the students to the Individual Project

Outline Of Syllabus

The module includes lectures, hands-on tutorials and a closely supervised design mini-project, where students work in the laboratory, implementing their designs on an FPGA development board while using industry standard tools. The design example covers an application in signal processing and advanced interfacing.

The lectures cover the basic design principles with VHDL, Intel/Altera development tool, a number of interfaces and signal protocols, FIR filter implementation with VHDL, debugging the design on the FPGA development board, writing a technical report.

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities
Category Activity Number Length Student Hours Comment
Structured Guided LearningLecture materials181:0018:00Pre-recorded lectures with handouts and online texts
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesLecture42:008:00lectures
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion110:0010:00demo of the design/experiment
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion130:0030:00Writing up report
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesPractical63:0018:00Timetabled Lab Work
Guided Independent StudyProject work180:0080:00Project work
Structured Guided LearningStructured non-synchronous discussion181:0018:00Design support/online chat
Guided Independent StudyIndependent study181:0018:00Student study time following the lectures
Total200:00
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

•       Lectures (online materials) provide adequate overview, background, literature sources and introduce the
methodology
•       Hands-on tutorials speed-up the phase of familiarisation with complex software tools.
•       Supervised practicals – this is where the student make the key design decisions in their project
under facilitation and guidance of experienced staff.
•       Unsupervised time in the laboratory/online (included into the Private Study activity) – routine
implementation work.
•       Report writing (included into the Private Study activity) – written communication skill,
•       summarises and organises all learning outcomes. It is also used for assessment.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Report2M100Individual report containing the evidence and analysis of practical results, 4000 words.
Formative Assessments

Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.

Description Semester When Set Comment
Prof skill assessmnt2MAssessment of progress and involvement degree of all members of the groups, feedback.
Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The written report must fulfil the SOLO criteria for the extended abstract type work. As such, it must contain the following parts: Aims and Objectives, Introduction, Results, Discussion, Conclusions and References. All the learning outcomes defined above must be reflected in the report. The adequate guidance on report writing will be provided by the academic staff.
Up to 50% of the report can be replaced with equivalent content in the form of tables, diagrams, equations and screen shots. Any illustrative material must be adequately integrated and discussed in the main text. The report must include the summary of the results of 3 hours reading of the current edition of ITRS document; the reading time is included into the private study article. The Demo is needed to verify the reported design and contribution by each student in the group.

Reading Lists

Timetable