ca Wiki 2014

2014:8-bit_minecraft_cpu

2014-12-19T11:47:26-04:00

8-Bit Minecraft CPU Our computers and laptops are literally a big black box with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. What is going on inside? Circuit diagrams have all the answers...except they are impossible to figure out unless you spend an entire semester trying to understand them. Our solution is to build a CPU in Minecraft, a popular sandbox game in which players can build various types of

2014:arm_assembly_adventures

2014-12-17T15:01:34-04:00

“ARM Assembly Adventures” Dennis Chen and Michael Bocamazo What did you do? We “investigated” optimization of the accuracy of fixed point math functions on the ARM CPU family. Computer representations of numbers are never entirely accurate, they just get “close enough”, since we only have a finite amount of space, or bits, to represent numbers in. Similarly, mathematical functions that we often call in programs without questioning, like cos(x) or x/y, really use algorithms to return an answe…

2014:danger

2014-11-10T18:35:45-04:00

2014:final_projects

2015-01-02T21:55:04-04:00

Final Projects 8-Bit Minecraft CPU by Sidd Singal, Subhash Gubba, Maddy Fort, Harshvardhan Bhatia, Deniz Celik FPGA Piano/LFSR with Sine Wave Generator by Casey Alvarado, Cynthia Chen, Mika Ichiki-Welches, Nitya Dhanushkodi, Zoher Ghadyali FPGA Piano by Deborah Hellen, Ben Kahle, Erika Weiler FPGA Implementations of Initial-Value Problem Solving Methods by Nick Eyre Vacuum Tube SR Latch by Forrest Bourke & Ruby Spring

2014:floating_point_unit

2014-12-17T17:59:57-04:00

Topic Statement This project had the wonderfully original goal of creating a sort of calculator capable of performing addition, subtraction, and multiplication with a workable subset of the rationale numbers (termed “floating point numbers”) while attempting to make optimizations to make the computation reasonably fast. Our unit is designed so that it can be attached to other modules and used within other designs and was inspired by the the age of floating point coprocessors that could be bough…

2014:fpga_guitar

2014-12-16T03:35:12-04:00

Abstract For our final project in Computer Architecture we decided to build an Field Programmable Gate Array Guitar. We used 8 switches on the FPGA, and defined the first seven as notes, each one corresponding to different frequencies, and the eighth button being the

2014:fpga_guitar_pedalboard

2014-12-25T16:51:34-04:00

Abstract For our final project in Computer Architecture we decided to build an FPGA Guitar PedalBoard. Pedalboards are boards that connect to electric guitars and house several different effects pedals. Effect pedals are used to modify the sound of electric guitars and there are several different types of effects. For instance there are octave pedals that raise or lower the octave played, and distortion pedals that distort the sound produced by the guitar.

2014:fpga_implementations_of_initial-value_problem_solving_methods

2014-12-16T20:54:35-04:00

FPGA Implementations of Initial-Value Problem Solving Methods by Nick Eyre [Documenntation] [Powerpoint] [Supplementary Material]

2014:fpga_midi_synth

2014-12-18T23:49:03-04:00

FPGA MIDI Synthesizer by Tom Chen and Jaehee Park What We Did We extended Caitlin Riley's project from last year that used the switches on an FPGA (Field-programmable Gate Array, essentially a customizable integrated circuit) to produce sine waves corresponding to the eight notes of an A minor scale. Our extension allowed the FPGA to produce sine waves at frequencies for any note on an 88 note piano as well as accept MIDI files as input.

2014:fpga_piano

2014-12-16T15:04:19-04:00

FPGA Piano Abstract Never understood why a piano has so many keys? Think a single octave is more than enough? The FPGA piano allows you to practice your favorite scales or chords and even lets you listen to some of your favorite tunes while you take a break. Our piano has two different modes: Piano Mode and Song Mode. In Piano Mode, the user can toggle the switches to play different tones and chords from the eight notes in an octave. In Song Mode, the user can depress the buttons on the FPGA…

2014:fpga_piano_drums

2014-12-18T23:55:49-04:00

FPGA Chiptunes What did we do? For our project, we programmed a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) with Verilog that allowed a person to use the eight built-in switches as a keyboard and the four built-in buttons as a drum pad. The sounds we set out to emulate were those of the computers and game systems of the past, also known as chiptunes. An image of our setup is seen below.

2014:fpga_piano_lfsr_with_sine_wave_generator

2014-12-18T23:17:53-04:00

Piano and Chip Tunes with an LFSR on an FPGA by Casey Alvarado, Mika Ichiki-Welches, Cynthia Chen, Nitya Dhanushkodi and Zoher Ghadyalli What did we do? Using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), we built a digital piano that plays the frequencies of the C major scale, given by:

2014:fpga_pianoman

2014-12-16T01:33:11-04:00

FPGA Piano Abstract Never understand why a piano has so many keys? Think a single octave is more than enough? The FPGA piano allows you to practice your favorite scales or chords and even lets you listen to some of your favorite tunes while you take a break. Our piano has two different modes Piano Mode and Song mode. In Piano Mode, the user can toggle the switches to play different tones and chords from the eight notes in an octave. In Song Mode, the user can depress the buttons on the FPGA …

2014:homework

2014-12-11T13:46:55-04:00

File Due Date Title Updated Supporting Documents ----- Letters to Ben 9/3/14 9/6/14 Survey 9/3/14 9/15/14 Installing ModelSim 9/9/14 9/22/14 Structural Verilog and Test Benches 9/17/14 9/29/14 4 bit Full Adder on FPGA 9/18/14 10/2/14

2014:interesting_links

2014-11-12T21:40:55-04:00

Jeri Ellsworth - Magnetic Logic Gates School House Rock - Little 12 Toes Z80 - 4 Bit ALU in an 8 bit processor Z80 - An Oral History Mask Programmed Forgery Homebrew Cray…

2014:labview_visualizations

2015-01-02T10:16:22-04:00

The project For this project, we investigated the usefulness of Labview as a teaching tool for Computer Architecture (CompArch). We approached it as a feasibility and user experience study. Why we did this Each of us had very different experiences with learning the CompArch concepts in parallel with learning Verilog. That being said, we both struggled with it. Emily struggled with not fully understanding the computer architecture concepts enough after leaving class to turn around and implement…

2014:large_integer_exponentiation

2014-12-17T21:25:22-04:00

Large Integer Hardware Exponentiation Abstract Exponents are a common mathematical operation. By hand, they're not too hard to evaluate. On a CPU, its fully possible to evaluate them as repeated multiplication. But what happens when the exponent is a 1000 digit number? What happens when the base is a 1000 digit number? What about both? Repeated multiplication may not be the smartest or fastest idea. It turns out there are far more efficient methods of evaluating large integer exponentiation by…

2014:lcd_driver_on_an_fpga

2014-12-16T06:40:29-04:00

Project Pineapple: Cats on Screens LCD Driver on an FPGA Steph "Grape" Northway Dimitar "Orange" Dimitrov Due December 16, 2014 ---------- We implemented a driver for the LCD screen in Figure 1, a 1.8 inch color display. Our implementation stores a photograph of a kitten in memory, initializes the screen, and writes the picture to the screen (in color!).

2014:lecture_notes

2014-12-01T14:27:53-04:00

Date File Material9/4/14 Intro to Boolean Logic, Course Details9/8/14 More Boolean Logic, Karnaugh Maps and DeMorgan's Laws9/11/14 Timing, Latches, Flip Flops9/15/14 Muxes, Demuxes, LUTS, FPGA Fabric Design9/18/14 Number Systems9/18/14 Floating Point

2014:mathematics_asm

2014-12-17T13:56:46-04:00

Mathematics function in assembly by Cyprien Guillemot, Bonjun Gu, Pil Hun Choi What did you do? For our final project we decided to code some mathematics function in assembly. We made: * Exponential * Logarithm * Cos * Sin * Tan * Power

2014:potential_project_ideas

2014-10-13T11:37:33-04:00

Delay Based Memory Create a piece of (analog? digital?) memory from some form of delay element: * Reflected Sound * Reflected Light * Long Coax * Sound in a mechanical medium Peripherals Use the FPGA to develop memory mapped peripherals for your softcore or existing silicon through an M2M interface.

2014:think_comparch

2014-12-18T16:58:55-04:00

Think CompArch By Samantha Kumarasena, Anne Wilkinson, and Tenzin Choetso What did you do? For our final CompArch project, we created a detailed tutorial that will explain to future CompArch students how to use Verilog and ModelSim effectively. We also included a section explaining basic MIPS architecture, since it was an area that we felt could use some consolidation.

2014:vacuum_tube_sr_latch

2014-12-18T23:43:15-04:00

Vacuum Tube SR Latch with Forrest & Ruby Our 12AX7 Vacuum Tubes Abstract We investigated 1940s era computers—esp. the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer)—and, using this knowledge, designed and constructed a basic bistable functioning element used in digital computers—the Set-Reset Latch, or simply SR Latch. Our ENIAC-based SR Latch design uses four triode vacuum tubes, basic analog components, and optional neon lights for output …

2014:vga_on_fpga

2014-12-18T11:35:38-04:00

Chris Wallace Radmer van der Heyde VGA Display on a FPGA What we did: For our final project, we attempted to use an FPGA to send a cat photo to a monitor. This was done via a de-soldered vga port from an old monitor connected to some circuitry then to the FPGA. Because the output of the fpga is a digital signal and vga uses an analog signal, we also built a digital to analog converter, a buffer, and a voltage divider to convert the digital 8 bit signal to a voltage between 0 and .7 volts.