Digital technology roadmap

VHDL & C

Large volume of production

Large Altera/Lattice/Xilinx FPGA (>100k logic gates)

Systems on Chip (SoC) & ASICS (GA)

Altera/Lattice/Xilinx CPLD and FPGA (2,5k 100k logic gates) Schematics & The versatile GAL22V10 (500 logic gates) Chapter 3: Dedicated processors

Systems on Programmable Chip (SoPC)

Chapter 4: Microcontrollers (C) PIC16/18 family

Professional applications in Telecommunications Systems and Telematics

VHDL
The theory basics and the classic 74 series / CMOS (SSI & MSI)

of microcontrollers

Chapter 2: FSM

Application specific digital systems (Datapath + control unit) Digital processors and subsystems (peripherals)

Introductory circuits & FSM Chapter 1: Combinational circuits

Digital Circuits & Systems

Advanced optional subjects or research

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CSD competencies
Digital systems and VHDL
CAD/EDA, laboratory software and tools

Microcontrollers
English Oral and written communication Team work Self-directed learning

Report edition, presentation and publishing Project management ePortfolio edition

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CSD systematic instructional design

Learning objectives and cross-curricular skills Repeated every term In and out of class timetable, problembased learning, application project After completing the course students have to be able to

Course evaluation Student questionnaires, and instructors processing

Coherence and consistency

Activities and study time scheduling

Method for solving assignments

Continuous formative and summative assessment

Active methodologies

Cooperative Learning, integrated learning of content and competencies, Learning by doing

Individual and group assessing, every work sample counts and can be improved, group e-portfolio No need of traditional exams

Learning objectives
Chapter 1 Combinational circuits

#6, #7, #8, #10

#9, #10, #11 #10, #12 #13, #14, #15

Chapter 2 Finite state machines

Chapter 3 Digital processor

Chapter 4 Microcontrollers

Cross-curricular objectives: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5

http://epsc.upc.edu/projectes/ed/CSD/index_CSD.html
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CSD specific content

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Combinational circuits
(34.5 h) 1.38 ECTS

Finite state machines

(FSM) (23h) 0.92 ECTS

Digital processor
(OU + CU) (23h) 0.92 ECTS

Microcontrollers
(C) (69h) 2.78 ECTS

Proteus-ISIS
(Labcenter)

Quartus II (Altera) ispLEVER Starter (Lattice Semiconductor) ISE (Xilinx)

Proteus-VSM (Labcenter) MPLAB (Microchip) HI-TECH C Compiler for PIC10/12/16 MCUs (Lite mode) (Microchip)

Minilog WolframAlpha IC prog VHDL ispLEVER Classic

(Lattice Semiconductor)

ModelSim (Mentor Graphics), Active HDL

(Aldec)

Synplicity Synplify synthesis (Synopsys) Classic ICs

Programmable logic devices (CPLD and FPGA) from Altera, Lattice, Xilinx Training boards (UP2, DE2, Spartan 3AN Starter Kit, MachXO USB Starter Kit, etc.

PIC 16F family of microcontrollers Training boards PICDEM2+, etc.

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sPLD GAL22V10

CSD generic tools

Oral and written communication English Self-directed learning Team work

Microsoft Office Visio Thunderbird CMapTools Gantt diagrams Google docs

Proofing tools Web editing tools Google sites Google translate Etc.

Planning activities and study time inside and outside the classroom (ECTS)
Activities
(~problem solving) Guided learning

Weekly study plan

Problem solving teamwork session
(2 h)

Exercises
Application project
Individual assessment

Guided academic activities (1 h)

Problem solving teamwork session at laboratory (2 h)

11.5 h per week

6 ECTS

ePortfolio

Student-conducted teamwork sessions

A PBL and CL course means training students for master degrees

Self-directed learning

(>6h)
Extra individual work
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Activities Design of real world applications

Designed using PLD/VHDL

Designed using microcontrollers

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Course timetable

ELECTRONICS I (E1) - 10-11 Q1 Weekly agenda of activities (main details)

Chapter 1: Combinational circuits W1 9/9-10 INTRO W2 9/14-18 W3 W4 Chapter 2: FSM W5 W6 Chapter 3: Digital processor W7 W8 W9 Chapter 4: Microcontrollers W10 11/9-13 W11 W12 W13 W14 W15 W16 W17 W18 W19 W20

10/26-30 11/2-6

12/14-18 12/21-22

1/11-15 1/18-25

Extra minimums' exam (1 - 5)

Extra minimums' exam (1-3)

EX1 EX2

C1

IM1 C2 IM2 IM2 C3 EX4 IM3

EX5

C5

IM5 C6 IM6

EX6
IM4

Christmas

New Year

EX3

AP

AP-P PO

MI-1

MI-2

MI-3

MI-4 69 hours of study time)

MI-5

(81 hours of study time) INTRO: course presentation and formation of the cooperative groups; EX: Exercises; C: correction; IM: improvement PA: application project; PO: portfolio MI : individual exam of minimums (unannounced). You need to pass all of them as a necessary condition to pass E1

EX : exercise/problem

C : correction

IM: improvement

AP: project

PO: portfolio

Cooperative Learning as the instructional method

Positive interdependence
Team members are obliged to rely on one another to achieve their common goal

Individual accountability
All students in a group are held accountable for doing their share of the work and for mastery of all of the content to be learned

Face-to-face promotive interaction

Group members providing one another with feedback, challenging one anothers conclusions and reasoning, and teaching and encouraging one another

Appropriate use of collaborative skills

Students are encouraged and helped to develop and practice skills in communication, leadership, decision-making, conflict management, and other aspects of effective teamwork

Regular self-assessment of group functioning

Team members periodically assess what they are doing well as a team and what 10 they need to work on for functioning more effectively in the future

A typical 2-hour group work sessions

Up to 15 minutes
Questions from previous sessions or exercises Introduction of new concepts or materials (generally, the problem to be designed) Group work for revising concepts and planning exercises Questions, discussion and general orientations Group work for developing exercises Conclusions and planning the autonomous session outside the classroom
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Up to 15 minutes 30 minutes
Up to 15 minutes 30 minutes 15 minutes

Student assessment Assessment is not a mechanism for verifying student knowledge, but an stimulus to guarantee that (motivated) students will do the group tasks which lead them to learn the content and skills Assessment is another learning activity integrated in the course dynamics ePortfolio
Every piece of work counts for the final grade Final exams are no longer needed
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Assessment scheme

Very important: rubrics for correcting and fast feedback

Includes an oral presentation and a written report

Exercises

+
6 deliverables with voluntary improvement

Individual controls

+
5 individual unannounced exams

Application Project

+
e-Portfolio

Examples to demonstrate crosscurricular skills development and reflection

Students have to pass all the 5 minimums in order to pass the course

+ Participation
and attitude

Q EX 30% MI 25% AP 20% PO 15% P & A 10%

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Cooperative group ePortfolio

Table of contents

1. Course, purpose, audience and structure 2. A list of hardware/software tools 3. Work samples and reflection for the cross-curricular skills 1. 3rd language (English) 1. An active reading of a paper or a book unit 2. A written assignment in English 3. Exam solution 2. Team work 1. Learning an electronic design automation (EDA) tool in group 2. An example of a group assignment 3. Oral and written communication 1. A concept prepared to learn the design flow for a digital circuit 2. A peer-reviewed written assignment 3. An oral presentation in class 4. Self-directed learning 1. Example of a project organisation and development 2. Example of a unit or lesson studied autonomously 4. General reflection and conclusions

Semi-structured group portfolio organised according the subjects cross-curricular skills

An excellent way for showing evidences of what have been learned

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Course evaluation and processing

This quality cycle has to be repeated every term CSD WEB page Learning objectives and cross-curricular skills

Course evaluation

Student questionnaires, and instructors processing

Coherence and consistency

Activities and study time scheduling

Continuous formative and summative assessment

Active methodologies

The aim is to prepare a plan with specific actions to improve teaching in upcoming courses (problems redesigning, timetable scheduling, workload, teaching materials, new software, demonstration exercises, etc.)
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