Trends in Electronics Design with Applications in Astronomy

1
Trends in Electronics Design with Applications in
Astronomy

• Presented by
• David Warren
• University of Tasmania (Astronomy)
• Altium Ltd. (Electronic Design Tools)

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Old Electronic Design

• Before the late 70s electronic devices were all
  hardware.
• Component based. (switches, relays, valves,
  transistors, ICs, VLSI IC.)
• Limited functionality
• Time consuming
• Iterative hardware proving
• Very expensive

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The Microprocessor

• Developed in 1972 by Intel for the calculator
  market.
• By 1980 the microprocessor was
• Fast (1M instructions/sec)
• Powerful (full featured instruction set (Z80))
• Cheap !! (ltUS20 )
• Ubiquitous (Even in Tasmania)

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The Soft Design Revolution

• The advent of the Microprocessor meant that
  Electronic Engineers could move a large part of
  their design into the mutable Software Space.
• You all saw what happened!
• Explosion of appliances and devices.
• The PC, communications
• And now GOOGLE EARTH!

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The FPGA Revolution

• By 2005 the FPGA has become
• Fast (100s of MHz)
• Powerful (1M gates)
• Cheap (US20)
• Ubiquitous (multiple manufacturers)
• So What Revolution???

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The Soft Hardware Revolution

• FPGAs are very large arrays of electronic logic
  hardware which have not yet been configured.
• They will be told what to become by the User.
  Thats YOU.
• They can be reconfigured almost instantly.
• So we have Soft Hardware!!

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Implications of Soft Hardware

• Engineers can now move much of the remaining (not
  Software) design into Soft Hardware.
• Very little of the design need be immutable
  (fixed Hard Hardware).
• The target PCB becomes Connectors, powersupply,
  and FPGA. Very little else is required in many
  cases.

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The Post-Processor World

• The Von-Neumann world has limitations
• Instructions data distinguished by usage.
• Sequential memory (one dimensional)
• Data has no inherent meaning
• Word at a Time operation bottleneck
• So Ditch the Processor!
• HDLs, esp. VHDL VERILOG
• High Level language to RTL translators.
• C to RTL, or more exactly C to VHDL to RTL

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New Generation of Design Tools

• Most FPGA design tools are Vendor Dependent. (YOU
  dont want this)
• Existing tools remain fragmented.
• Strong need for Integrated Approach.
• As designers for Astronomy we want an integrated
  system which provides all the tools we want.
• We want to finish the design and get on with the
  SCIENCE.

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Altium Designer

• Lets see how we can do this.

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(No Transcript)
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Familiar Design Paradigm
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Generic Logic Library
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Mixed Block/Schematic/HDL/ASS/High Level Design
Entry
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FPGA based Instruments
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Embedded Processor and Nanoboard Facilities
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Embedded Processor Library
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Embedded Design No HDL (necessary)
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Device Chain FPGAs, uPs, Test Insts.
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Full PCB - FPGA Interface management
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Main Points

• Integrated Tool Kit
• FPGA based System Design
• VHDL Support
• Embedded support
• Test Instruments
• PCB Design
• PCB FPGA Management
• Vendor Independent

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Video Demos

• http//www.altium.com/Evaluate/DemoCenter/altiumde
  signeroverview/
• gtgtgtgtgtgtENDgtgtgtgt

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The future is soft

• The movement of design into the soft realm
  brings great benefits to the electronic product
  development process
• Critical design decisions can be made later in
  the design cycle
• Different implementation options can be
  considered throughout the design cycle
• Product can be brought to market earlier and then
  upgraded in the field
• The hard-wired platform and the embedded
  intelligence can be developed concurrently
• The methodology facilitates easier design reuse
  and modularisation of design
• To capitalise on these benefits and move into the
  future your design tools must be ready and
  capable of facilitating this new design paradigm.

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Anticipating the next big thing

• FPGAs allow embedded intelligence to encompass
  not only software, but soft-wired physical device
  blocks
• FPGAs allow more of the design to be done in a
  soft realm
• Blocks of the physical design can be soft-wired
• Soft-wired components can be easily changed
  throughout the development process
• The emergence of highly-capable FPGA devices at
  relatively low cost is fuelling an explosion in
  soft system design
• In this paradigm electronic product development
  involves two elements
• Defining a hardwired platform to house the
  programmable elements using off-the-shelf
  components and connection interfaces
• Developing the embedded intelligence that resides
  within the programmable elements.

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Altium Designer integrated technology coverage
Hardware Board-level system design
Soft-wired hardware FPGA-level system design
Software Embedded Software design

• Mixed schematic block diagram and HDL design
  entry
• Ready-to-use, FPGA-based functional components,
  including processors and peripherals
• Vendor-independent device selection and design
• HDL functional simulation
• RTL-level synthesis
• FPGA-based virtual instruments for LiveDesign
  interactive system design and debug
• Centralized control of design processing and
  download to FPGA
• Bi-directional PCB-FPGA design constraint
  propagation

• Hierarchical, multi-channel schematic capture
• Mixed analog-digital SPICE circuit simulation
• Pre- and post-layout signal integrity analysis
• Rules-based PCB design and layout
• Situs Topological autorouting
• Automatic and interactive FPGA pin optimization
  for routing
• PCB-FPGA I/O synchronization
• CAM file generation, inspection and editing

• Integrated embedded software development for
  supported FPGA-based and discrete processors
• Viper optimizing compilers
• Source-level debug
• Debug from source and disassembly views
• Simulator-based debug
• Language-aware, configurable code editor
• Software profilers

FPGA-PCB co-design
Hardware Software co-design
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Who is this Dave Guy Anyway?

• Dave's life is deeply schizophrenic with half of
  his brain focused on the business of software
  tools for electronic design, and the other half
  focused on hedonistic pursuits which include a
  large dose of astronomy. Another half is deeply
  involved in the promotion of Physics Maths at
  the Uni. of Tas and generally. If that's too many
  halves, well that's how I often feel.
•  
• The truth is that Dave is a sad refugee from the
  Grand Old Days of Australian X-Ray Astronomy
  (Greenhill school of applied integrated
  technology (read as "honours student tech
  slave")) of the early 80's.
•  
• After failing to complete numerous PhD's in
  variously x-rays, cosmic rays, and physiology,
   Dave stepped sideways into technology companies
  one of which grew into Protel Technology which
  begat Altium Ltd, the Australian ASX listed
  electronic CAD company.
• Dave never quite left involvement with astronomy
  and has returned with vigour to this his favorite
  pastime in recent years.
•  
• Anyway, Dave has 25 years experience in
  electronics, both for science and industry, and
  20 year experience in the design, development and
  selling of CAD tools for electronic design.
• In the last years Dave has gotten real interested
  in electronics design for radio astronomy.
• In particular Altium Ltd has developed
  significant tools for integrated FPGA design.
• These tools allow the "non-expert" electronic
  designer to jump into the FPGA world with
  unprecedented ease....