Click here to return to Tutorials

Tutorial Title: Modelling and Design of Digital Electronic Systems (targeting FPGAs) – Methods, Trends and Application to the Control of Electrical Systems

Presenters: Marcian Cirstea (UK); Eric Monmasson (France)

This tutorial reviews methodologies for modelling and design of digital electronic systems, mainly focussing on those targeting Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) as system-on-chip implementation for rapid prototyping from the same Electronic Design Automation (EDA) environment. It starts with a review of electronics development history, then focusing on Integrated Circuits (ICs). Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) and FPGA Technologies are briefly described, along with their comparative economics and position in electronic IC categories in general. The top-down design methodology is presented, in context of its use for FPGA design, and a brief comparison with Microprocessor / DSP implementation approach is given. The methods covered initially are based on the functional modeling and verification of complete electronic systems using Hardware Description Languages (HDLs) then targeting programmable devices – mainly Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) – for hardware prototyping. The main features of hardware description languages based design approach are highlighted. More recent methods based on high level languages such as System-C, using High Level Synthesis (HLS), or schematic-based Electronic System Level (ESL) design are also reviewed, following on then to discuss the advantages of higher level languages for system-on-chip solutions design and implementation.

Some advantages of the modern approaches (using EDA) relate to the use of a single modelling and design environment, fast design development, short time to market, generation of an EDA platform independent model, reusability of the model / design, generation of valuable IP and high level hardware/software design partitioning. Several timely case studies related to power electronics and motor drives are then introduced. It is first shown all the benefits of a full Hw dedicated architecture for implementing a predictive control of a synchronous motor, an adaptive MPPT control for photovoltaic applications and a fault tolerant controller for grid connected converter. Then, a couple of examples are described to highlight the growing interest of SoC-based controllers. These examples are respectively the use of a GA-based methodology to obtain an optimal partition for Hw/Sw co-design, an online dynamic reconfiguration of PV panels in case of highly mismatched shading conditions and a control of a Modular Multilevel Converter. Pointers for future trends / evolution of the electronic design strategies and tools are then given, including the trend / expectation of software engineers to design electronics hardware, using higher-level design languages, in the context of the Computer Engineering concept and in the framework of Concurrent Engineering. Finally, a discussion of the evolution and future trends of electronic design methods, tools and techniques is included. In longer term, generative designs are likely to emerge on a wider scale as a new trend, with the role of the engineer shifting towards the analysis and appropriate interpretation of designs generated by sophisticated CAD tools. A summary and some concluding remarks are offered at the end.