NASA Office of Logic Design

A scientific study of the problems of digital engineering for space flight systems,
with a view to their practical solution.

2004 MAPLD International Conference

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
Washington, D.C.

September 8-10, 2004

Seminar: VHDL Synthesis for High-Reliability Systems

"VHDL Synthesis for High-Reliability Systems"  will be a full-day, 6 hour seminar held on Tuesday, September 7, 2004.  It will start at 9:30 am.  Break service and lunch will be provided.  A working knowledge of VHDL, logic synthesis, and digital design is assumed.

Seminar Leaders

Melanie Berg		"Dr. Rod" Barto NASA Office of Logic Design

Abstract

Seminar Topics Will Include:

• Coding Style Recommendations for Portability (The Do's)
• Coding Styles to Avoid (the Don'ts)
• Registers, variables, latches, after, assignments to CLK
• State machine basics
• Creating Safe State machines
• Additional topics/sections:
• Methodology & Design Organization
• Register block outputs (when possible) to reduce potential for long timing paths across blocks (Most important for ASICs where we often synthesize subblocks and then merge them).
• Don't forget your HDL it is hardware.
• Reset (asynchronous, synchronous, and issues)
• Clocks
• Crossing clock boundaries
• Examining the synthesizer's outputs (netlists, documentation).
• Avoiding unreliable structures such as hazards and high-skew clocking networks
• Reuse of "proven" intellectual property
• Replicated flip-flops, pipeline boundaries, and other miscellaneous ways to get into trouble.

Presentations

• Introduction and a VHDL Synthesis Issue
• A Designer's Checklist
• Methodologies for Reliable Design Implementation
  • VHDL Appendix
• Reset Circuit Topologies
• VHDL Design Tips and Low Power Design Techniques
• Synthesis Issues: Demonstrated with a Simple Finite State Machine Using Gray Codes
• VHDL Design Review and Presentation
• When Should You and When Should You Not Use VHDL?
• Case Study of a VHDL Design

For more information please contact:

Richard B. Katz
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
mapld2004@klabs.org

2004 MAPLD International Conference Home Page

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