Catalog Description: Develops foundations of VLSI simulation -- numerical analysis, linear algebra, data structures, language theory, and digital and analog circuits. Student teams write simulation packages. Covers simulation from the switch level to the behavioral level,including fault simulation.

Prerequisites: Undergraduate background in digital systems and a reasonable proficiency in programming.

Textbook: Lecture notes.

References:

Concurrent and Comparative Discrete Event Simulation, E. G.Ulrich, V. D. Agrawal, and J. H. Arabian, Kluwer, 1994.
A VHDL Primer, J. Bhasker, Prentice Hall, 1995.

Goals: Simulation is a key tool in the development of VLSI systems and the knowledge of its techniques and applications has become vital for circuit and systems designers. Students who take this course learn how to use and write simulators.

Topics:

Hardware Description Languages and their applications.
Numerical techniques used in circuit simulation.
Event handling techniques used in logic simulation.
Modeling issues at various levels of simulation.
The techniques used for fault modeling and fault simulation.
The role of simulation in the design process, including test program development.

Computer Usage:

Students get hands-on experience with simulators and implement their own algorithms as part of the course.
They get exposure to VHDL, the emerging standard in the field of Hardware Description Languages.

Laboratory Project:

Students write a simple event-driven simulator.

ABET Category Content:

Engineering Design: 3 credits or 100%