ELE405: Digital Computer Design

Project – Fall 2009

Phase 1: ISA: instruction set architecture.
Phase 2: Data Path design.
Phase 3: Control unit design.
Phase 4: CPU and demo system.
Phase 5: Building a "real-life" embedded system around your own CPU.

General Descriptions: The 405 project is about building a computer-based system from scratch. There are two distinct parts to this project: phases 1 to 4 are about building a CPU and phase 5, the last phase, is about building a computer systems using this CPU.

Team: The entire project has been divided into five phases. The first four phases will be performed by teams of no more than two persons. For the last phase of the project, students may form new team.

Labs: During phases 2 to 5, some works have to be done using the Lab facilities but outside the laboratory (ELE406) hours. However, you may reserve some time during the lab hours for the project works to be done. As the labs were designed highly relevant to the project, this will not cause much conflict. When entering the last phases of the project, there will no longer be any scheduled lab for ELE406. Instead the lab hours will be used exclusively for the project. The final project report will be counted as 25% grade of ELE406.

Project proposal: Student will submit their final project proposal (for phase 5) before the starting day of project phase 5. The proposals will be reviewed by the instructor and TA, and will be discussed at the first phase 5 project meeting. All proposals are subject to comments and modifications.

Autonomous: Each team has the liberty to shape their own semester project. The only constraints here are:

• software tool and hardware equipment must be readily available;
• the core of the project must be a CPU;
• the project deliverable must be an embedded system (demonstrated both software and hardware components) with your own CPU; and
• written report and/or documentation must be presented.

Project deliverables: At the end of the project, presentation and demonstration will be arranged for each team. Written reports and/or documentations are also required.

• Demonstration of the given task is required. You are to write an application program runs on your own CPU and use the built-in I/O to form a prototype of a "real-life" embedded system.
• Written report and documentation must be clear such that others can use your CPU without serious problem after reading the documentation.
• A project webpage should be constructed as part of the final report.

Questions and Comments can be raised at the class. At least 5 minutes will be reserved in each class for the project.

Useful Documents and Links for the Project

The Pygmy CPU

Documentation of Pygmy CPU 2008 edition.

An assembler that will save you a lot of time for the project

CASPR - A Configurable Assembler Program by Tim Parys (ele405, Spring 2004)

LC3: Little Computer 3 ISA and an example implementation

1. Example ISA

2. Microarchitecture