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FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Moore’s Law
Gordon Moore: co-founder of Intel. Predicted that number of transistors per chip
would grow exponentially (double every 18 months).
Exponential improvement in technology is a natural trend: steam engines, dynamos, automobiles.
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Moore’s Law plot
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
The cost of fabrication
Current cost: $2-3 billion. Typical fab line occupies about 1 city
block, employs a few hundred people. New fabrication processes require 6-8
month turnaround. Most profitable period is first 18 months-2
years.
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Cost factors in ICs
For large-volume ICs:– packaging is largest cost;– testing is second-largest cost.
For low-volume ICs, design costs may swamp all manufacturing costs.– $10 million-$20 million.
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Mask cost vs. line width
0100,000200,000300,000400,000500,000600,000700,000800,000900,000
1,000,000
.25 micron .18 micron .13 micron .09 micron
mask cost ($)
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Field-programmable gate arrays
FPGAs are programmable logic devices:– Logic elements + interconnect.– Provide multi-level logic.
LE
LE
LE
Interconnectnetwork
LE
LE
LE
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
FPGAs and VLSI
FPGAs are standard parts:– Pre-manufactured.– Don’t worry (much) about physical design.
Custom silicon:– Tailored to your application.– Generally lower power consumption.
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Standard parts vs. custom
Do you build your system with an FPGA or with custom silicon?– FPGAs have shorter design cycle.– FPGAs have no manufacturing delay.– FPGAs reduce inventory.– FPGAs are slower, larger, more power-hungry.
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Challenges in system design
Multiple levels of abstraction: logic to CPUs.
Multiple and conflicting constraints: low cost and high performance are often at odds.
Short design time: Late products are often irrelevant.
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
The system design process
May be part of larger product design. Major levels of abstraction:
– specification;– architecture;– logic design;– circuit design;– layout.
FPGA-based system design
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Elements of an FPGA fabric
Logic. Interconnect. I/O pins.
…
LE LE LE
LE LE LE
LE LE LE
interconnect
IOB IOB IOB …
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Terminology
Configuration: bits that determine logic function + interconnect.
CLB: combinational logic block = logic element (LE).
LUT: Lookup table = SRAM used for truth table.
I/O block (IOB): I/O pin + associated logic and electronics.
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Logic element
Programmable:– Input connections.– Internal function.
Coarser-grained than logic gates.– Typically 4 inputs.
Generally includes register. May provide specialized logic.
– Adder carry chain.
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Example logic element
Lookup table: a b out
0 0
0 1
1 0
1 1
memorya
bout
0
0
1
0
0 0 1 0
1
0
0
1
1 0 0 1
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Logic synthesis
How do we break the function into logic elements?
How do we implement an operation within a logic element?
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Placement
Where do we put each piece of logic in the array of logic elements?
…
LE LE LE
LE LE LE
LE LE LE
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Programmable wiring
Organized into channels.– Many wires per channel.
Connections between wires made at programmable interconnection points.
Must choose:– Channels from source to destination.– Wires within the channels.
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Programmable interconnection point
D Q
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Programmable wiring paths
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Choosing a path
LE
LE
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Routing problems
Global routing:– Which combination of channels?
Local routing:– Which wire in each channel?
Routing metrics:– Net length.– Delay.
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Segmented wiring
Length 1
Length 2
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Offset segments
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
I/O
Fundamental selection: input, output, three-state?
Additional features:– Register.– Voltage levels.– Slew rate.
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Programming technologies
SRAM.– Can be programmed many times.– Must be programmed at power-up.
Antifuse.– Programmed once.
Flash.– Similar to SRAM but using flash memory.
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Configuration
Must set control bits for:– LE.– Interconnect.– I/O blocks.
Usually configured off-line.– Separate burn-in step (antifuse).– At power-up (SRAM).
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Configuration vs. programming
FPGA configuration:– Bits stay at the device
they program.
– A configuration bit controls a switch or a logic bit.
CPU programming:– Instructions are fetched
from a memory.
– Instructions select complex operations.
CPUmemoryadd r1, r2 IRadd r1, r2
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Reconfiguration
Some FPGAs are designed for fast configuration.– A few clock cycles, not thousands of clock
cycles. Allows hardware to be changed on-the-fly.
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
FPGA fabric architecture questions
Given limited area budget:– How many logic elements?– How much interconnect?– How many I/O blocks?
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Logic element questions
How many inputs? How many functions?
– All functions of n inputs or eliminate some combinations?
– What inputs go to what pieces of the function? Any specialized logic?
– Adder, etc. What register features?
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
Interconnect questions
How many wires in each channel? Uniform distribution of wiring? How should wires be segmented? How rich is interconnect between channels? How long is the average wire? How much buffering do we add to wires?
FPGA-Based System Design: Chapter 1 Copyright 2004 Prentice Hall PTR
I/O block questions
How many pins?– Maximum number of pins determined by
package type. Are pins programmed individually or in
groups? Can all pins perform all functions? How many logic families do we support?