Labs

The laboratory experiments are meant to reinforce the lecture material and form an integral part of the learning experience in this course.

There will be 4 lab experiments, done individually. Lab 0 is an ungraded lab to familiarized yourself with the board simulator. Labs 1-3 will be graded.

Experiments

Lab experiments for this course will be conducted using a simulated ARM processor on a simulated Altera DE1-SoC single board computer. The FPGA chip on the DE1-SoC has an ARM processor in it that you will programmed. We will not be using the VHDL configurable fabric of the FPGA in this class. In later classes, such as ECSE 325 Digital Systems, you will learn how to use both the FPGA fabric and the ARM processor on the chip to do hardware/software co-design.

Altera DE1-SoC

Board Simulator

You will be using a web-based simulator that you will learn to use in lab 0. The simulator is able to simulate the board’s processor as well as many of its I/O devices.

Scheduled lab sessions

During the 2-hour online lab sessions, you will have access to the TAs for questions and to demonstrate the lab experiments to your TAs for evaluation. It is not possible to ask the TA for help or demo your lab in a period other than the one assigned to you.

Note

Depending on actual attendance, the lab room may not have enough computers avaialble for every student. For those of you who have a laptop, please bring it along. There will be no need to install any software since the simulator runs in any modern web browser.

Documentation

• Introduction to the ARM Processor Using Altera Toolchain

• ARMv7-AR Architecture Reference Manual

• ARM and Thumb-2 Instruction Set Quick Reference Card

• DE1-SoC Computer Manual

• Simulator help

Important

The quick reference card is the only document you will have access to during the exam, make sure to learn how to use it when programming!

Labs details

• Lab 0
• Lab 1
• Lab 2
• Lab 3