I have done two diploma work, one after 80 credit units and the other after 120 credit units. The first work was done at the swedish defence materiel administation (FMV) in Stockholm with help from SAAB Dynamics in Jönköping. The work "bestod av" three parts:
My latets work was done at Ericsson Radio System in Nacka strand. The asignment was to evaluate two graphical HDL tool (Renoir from Mentor Graphics and VisualHDL from Summit) with aspect on design methodology and reusability.
Below you can read the abstract from the reports, and if you find it intressting you can download a copy of the report.
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1. When a new product shall be developed, there is only one design philosopy we recommend, the Top Down design method.
2. A time schedule shall always be developed by the program management before any design and developement are allowed to begin.
3. The buyer and seller shall properly go thru the specification, to secure that they both understand what shall be produced before the customer can approve the specifications and give formal go ahead to the design phase.
4. The design of the testbench shall be in accordance with the system- and test- specificatins. If testbench and VHDL coding shall be done by one designer, the testbench shall be designed first. Though we strongly recommend that they are modelled by different designers.
5. VHDL code of the system shall always be modeled at the higest possible abstraction level with no regards to ASIC/FPGA/PLD´s, to save time, secure that the product works in it´s environment and to secure the functionality of the testbench. This VHDL code does not need to be synthesisable.
6. It is first at synthesis time the VHDL designer have to fit the VHDL code to the selected circuitfamily and its synthesis tool.
Download a copy of the report(in Swedish, MS-word)
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An evaluation of graphical HDL tools with aspects on design methodology and reusability.
ABSTRACT
Today a manufacturer does not only has to think about the product development, he also has to hit the market window.This puts demands on both the designer and the tools. Graphical HDL tools and reusability is one way to reach the goal.
A search on the market for graphical HDL tools was made and the result from this search was that two tools were selected, Mentor Graphics Renoir and Summits VisualHDL.
The evaluation of the tools has been made in accordance with the following main areas: Tool, Reusability, Quality and productivity aspects, Design aspects and Vendor aspects.
The evaluated design has been taken from NA/ERA/JR/MX ATM switch port. The evaluation lead to the conclusion that VisualHDL is the tool to recommend, also a design methodology for VisualHDL has beed proposed.
Reusability is a wide area which will take a long time to investigate, therefore it is only discussed briefly. Two areas of importance is: Using a graphical HDL tool makes reuse of older designs easier . To get a reusability philosophy inside a company, some changes in the organisation must be done.
Download a copy of the report(in English, Framemaker)