Note:  Lectures for the Course will begin on April 10, 2024. 

Content of the course

Computer-based systems, often referred to as embedded systems, now determine our everyday lives. Some examples are cell phones, washing machines, fax machines, automotive controls, and industrial controls. They are all based on a hardware platform on which various complex software programs are executed.

The development (synthesis) of such systems is a great challenge due to:

• the increasing diversity and complexity of heterogeneous systems,
• the need to reduce design and testing costs, and
• steady progress in key technologies (microelectronics, formal design methods).

New design problems in this context are in particular:

• the question of the selection of hardware and software components,
• the partitioning of a specification into hardware and software,
• the implementation and verification of the cross-domain systems,
• as well as approaches to rapid prototyping and emulation.

The lecture Hardware / Software Codesign II is based on the principles taught in HW / SW Codesign I (system architectures, code generation, partitioning) and introduces further methods, processes and technologies that are required for the design of complex embedded systems.

The topics mainly include:

1. Estimation of design and system parameters
2. Interfaces and interface synthesis
3. Rapid prototyping and emulation
4. Co-specification and co-simulation

The lecture is supplemented by an internship, where an HW / SW system is to be designed and implemented as an example. This includes the description of the hardware in a hardware description language (VHDL) and the hardware-related microcontroller programming (C). Nexys 3 boards from Digilent with a XILINX Spartan 6 FPGA are used as target platforms.

The lecture Hardware / Software Codesign II and the practical courses are held in English. The Start date for the Exercise/Labs will be announced in the coming weeks and also during the letures.

NOTE: Start of the First Exercise will be Announced during Lectures.

In the download area you will find the lecture slides and the documents for the internship. To gain access, register for one of the internship groups.