EEE4084F

This is the first lectures for this course, mainly a meet & greet and explanation of how the course is structured and what is involved.

Terms, Validation vs. Verification, Commonly used verification methods, Class Activity – Quiz#0

• UML recap
• Report writing
• Intro to Prac 1
• Octave Introduction
• Latex Stack Exchange
• Latex WikiBook

Parallel computing fundamentals, Large Scale Parallelism, Amdahl’s Law Revisited, Base Core Equivalents (BCEs), Calculating performance using BCEs

Parallel Languages, Automatic Parallelization, Performance Benchmarking, Metrics of Performance

Benchmarking cont, Introduction to pThreads.

• Tic toc functions for C/C++: TicToc_in_C.zip
• Dot product golden measure scalarprod_gm.zip
• Dot product with threads scalarprod_mutex.zip
• Various other timing functions and examples: Timing.zip

Lecture 07

• Power concerns
• GST and socially conscious computer engineers
• Grosch's 'law'
• Supercomputer performance and the Top500

Lecture 08

• Parallel Programming Models
• Parallel System Approaches
• Parallel Programming Tools
• Parallelizing Compilers
• Shared Memory Models
• Shared Memory Terms

Lecture 09

• Why OpenCL
• Brief overview of OpenCL
• Abstractions and platform model
• OpenCL Scenario & Prac3 Prep
• TestDevices.zip (test your OpenCL device)

Lecture 10

• Classic parallel programming techniques
• Processor Architecture Types
• Von Neumann
• Flynn’s Taxonomy
• Memory access architectures
• Case Studies of classic microprocessor/microcontroller architectures

Lecture 11

• Cloud computing
• Virtualization

Lecture 12

• Where work is done, division of labour
• HPEC management
• HPEC development process
• Setting system objectives
• Monitoring progress
• Documentation
• Effort, Productivity and Progress
• (Optional extra slides re intro to Doxygen)

Lecture 13

• What is quality?
• Software quality
• Software quality assurance (SQA)
• Software quality systems
• Consequences of bad SQA
• Evolutionary model of SQA in organizations
• Kaizen of software

Lecture 14

• MPI
• OpenMP
• Best of both

Lecture 15

• Development Environment
• What are productivity tools?
• An effective selection of productivity tools

Lecture 16

• Your Own Digital Accelerator (YODA) project

Lecture 17

• Programmable Logic Devices
• What is so special about FPGAs
• FPGA interns
• Xilinx Slices

Lecture 18

• Why Verilog?
• Basics of Verilog coding
• Exercise
• Verilog simulators
• Intro to Verilog in ISE/Vivado
• Test bench
• Generating Verilog from Schematic Editor

Lecture 18X

• HDL and VHDL Recap

Lecture 19

• FPGA performance evaluation
• FPGA vs CPU performance
• FPGA families
• YODA issues

Lecture 20

• Brief recap
• Busses and endianess
• Functions in Verilog
• Implementing state machines
• Constraints
• UCF Files

Recommended reading: Xilinx learning module on UCF Editing

Lecture 21

• When to use assign
• Blocking and non-blocking simulation and potential pitfalls
• The unconditional always
• Configuration architectures
• Digital signals, Interface basics, Using latches

Lecture 22

• Interconnection on-chip bus topologies
• Interfacing standards
• A look at Wishbone and how it works
• Standard memory interfaces
• DMA transfers
• Memory types

Lecture 23

• Softcore processors
• Case studies:
• Xilinx Microblaze
• Xilinx Picoblaze
• DUGONG (a 'sort of' interface control processor)
• [Optional: Altera/Intel NIOS2]

Lecture 24

Lecture 24X

Lecture 25

Lecture 26

Lecture 27

Lecture 28X

Review Lecture

Review lecture will be available soon