FPGA Architecture and CAD

This course introduces the characteristics, evolution and usage of field-programmable technologies, and also look into some advanced researches related to FPGA architecture and CAD. On the hardware side, the tradeoff involved in finding a balanced FPGA architecture are investigated, and some recent commercial FPGA architectures are studied as examples. On the software side, the FPGA design flow and the design of efficient FPGA CAD tools for technology mapping, placement, and routing, etc. to optimize power and performance are studied. New directions of architecture & CAD research is also explored.