A Unified SoC Lab Course: Combined Teaching of Mixed Signal Aspects, System Integration, Software Development and Documentation

Abstract

University courses for System-on-Chip (SoC) design mostly focus on particular aspects. Whereas this can provide detailed understanding of these aspects, it neglects system integration specific topics such as crossing digital and analog domains. In addition, many courses skip practical issues and do not teach Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools. This is reasonable in the context of a specialized course, but omitting these techniques often prevents students from making active use of the learned knowledge in their own projects. In the following, we present our technological platform to teach SoC design in a holistic lab course: The course takes students from writing the first line of Verilog code to advanced digital and analog design. It introduces simulation of digital and analog systems, debugging methods for software and hardware, CPU bus architecture, custom peripherals and driver development. This work is prototyped using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and later transferred to an ASIC target, covering standard cell synthesis and analog layout. At the end of the semester, students finalize the project with technical documentation writing. The course is built on the design of an audio peripheral, combining all topics in a single real-world system. It enables students to apply theoretical aspects from various lectures in the SoC curriculum in practice and equips them with the skills needed to dive deeper into each of the involved topics on their own.