Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 1 ESE370: Circuit-Level Modeling, Design, and Optimization for Digital Systems Day 1: September 8, 2010 Introduction and Overview

Questions How fast can my computer run? –What limits this speed? –What can I do to make it run faster? How can I extend the battery life on my gadget? –How much energy must my computation take? How small can I make a memory? –Why does DRAM need to be refreshed? Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 2

Questions How many bits/second can I send over a link? –What limits this? –How do I maximize? How does technology scaling change these answers? What can I rely on technology to deliver? Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 3

Outline Motivating Questions What this course is about Objectives Structure New… Policies Content Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 4

Deconstruction Circuit-Level Modeling, Design, and Optimization for Digital Systems Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 5 Look below the gates …transistors, resistance, capacitance, inductance… Abstract and predict Create Make efficient (fast,low energy,small) Compute, store, transmit binary values (0s, 1s)

What course about What Computer Engineers need to know about the physical properties in order to design efficient digital circuits Physical Properties –Delay, Energy (Power), Area, Reliability Efficient –Fast, Low Energy, Small, Won’t Fail (very often) Digital Circuits –Computation, Storage, Communication Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 6

What course is about Modeling and abstraction –Predict circuit behavior –Well enough to know our design will work –…with specific properties Speed, energy, …. –Well enough to reason about design and optimization What knob can I turn to make faster? How much faster can I expect to make it? Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 7

What course is about Modeling and abstraction –Back-of-the-envelope Simple enough to reason about –…without a calculator… –Sensitive to phenomenology Able to think through the details –With computer assistance …understanding even that is a simplified approximation Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 8

9 You are here. ESE205/215, ESE319 ESE218 Phys151 ESE200 (ESE170) CIS240 CIS371, ESE534 CIS380 CIS120

Objectives Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 10

You will learn disciplines for robust digital logic and signaling –(e.g., restoration, clocking, handshaking) where delay, energy, area, and noise arises in gates, memory, and interconnect how to model these physical effects –back-of-the-envelope design (e.g. RC and Elmore delay) –detailed simulation (e.g. SPICE) Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 11

You will learn the nature of tradeoffs in optimization –Among delay, energy, area, noise how to design and optimize –logic, memory, and interconnect structures –at the gate, transistor, and wire level how technology scales – and its impact on digital circuits and computer systems Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 12

New Course Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 13

New Course For Penn –Rough edges –Will be some experimentation –Need your feedback (feedback sheets one piece) For Me –Topic about which I’m mostly a consumer Use models to do design higher-level design –How make FPGA, processors, GPU faster, cooler –How {hot,fast} is my {nanowire,NEMS} circuits Do not regularly –Develop low-level models, circuits Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 14

Structure Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 15

Structure MWF Lecture Reading from text 4 lecture periods  Lab –3 Detkin (formally RCA) See phenomena first hand before simulate –1 Ketterer  SPICE Intro Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 16

SPICE Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis –Industry standard analog circuit simulator –Non-linear, differential equation solver specialized for circuits Integrated circuits – simply impractical to build to debug –Must simulate to optimize/validate design Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 17

Structures Homeworks – week long (6 total) Projects – two weeks long (3 total) –Design oriented –On three main topics Computation Storage Communication One midterm Final Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 18

Admin Won’t bring printouts to class Use course calendar –Lectures online before class (most of the time) –Homeworks linked Homework 1 out now (tied to first lab visit) –Reading specified Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 19

Policies Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 20

Policies See web page for details Turnin homework on blackboard –No handwritten homework –Use CAD Tools for circuit drawings Late homework penalty Individual work (HW & Project) –CAD drawings, simulations, analysis, writeups –May discuss strategies, but must acknowledge Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 21

Content Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 22

Content Logic (Computation) [7 weeks] –Combinational –Sequential Storage [2 weeks] Communication [3 weeks] Energy and Information [1 week] Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 23

Content Logic –Transistors  Gates –In Lab: build gate, measure delay, restore –Restoration –Delay –Area (no layout  ESE570) –Energy –Synchronous (flip-flops, clocking, dynamic) –Project: fast (low-power) ripple-carry adder Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 24

Content Memory –No Lab component –RAM Organization –Driving Large Capacitances –Signal amplification/restoration –Project: design a Register File Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 25

Content Communication –In Lab Measure inductive ground bounce, crosstalk Experiment with transmissions lines, termination –Noise Crosstalk Inductive Ionizing particles, shot –Transmission Lines –Project: Chip-to-chip signaling Energy and Information Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 26

Wrapup Admin –Find web, get text, assigned reading… Big Ideas / takeaway –Model to enable design Remaining Questions? Penn ESE370 Fall DeHon 27