The computer engineering department at Linköping University has a research project which investigates the use of an on-chip network in a router. There has been an implementation of it in a FPGA and for this router there is a need for buffer memory. This thesis extends the router design with a DDR memory controller which uses the features provided by the Virtex-II FPGA family. The thesis shows that by carefully scheduling the DDR SDRAM memory high volume transfers are possible and the memory can be used quite effciently despite its rather complex interface. The DDR memory controller developed is part of a packet buffer module which is integrated and tested with a previous, slightly modifed, FPGA based router design. The performance of this router is investigated using real network interfaces and due to the poor network performance of desktop computers special hardware is developed for this purpose.

Zugl.: Braunschweig, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2008

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2017-10-25T13:48:51Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Samuel Lessinger_.pdf: 3503378 bytes, checksum: 92c0e6ccfb6dfb145bc9a84b3ce1ceed (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-25T13:48:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Samuel Lessinger_.pdf: 3503378 bytes, checksum: 92c0e6ccfb6dfb145bc9a84b3ce1ceed (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-21 / PADIS - Programa de apoio ao desenvolvimento tecnológico da indústria de semicondutores / O presente trabalho consiste em uma proposta de uma plataforma reconfigurável para testes de módulos de memória SDRAM DDR3. Testadores de módulos de memória consistem em sistemas de arquiteturas fechadas, nos quais o usuário possui pouca flexibilidade em sua utilização, transporte e são na maioria das vezes sistemas volumosos próprios para uso em bancadas. Neste cenário, uma plataforma portátil de baixo custo, que possibilite ao usuário descrever os algoritmos de teste torna-se interessante. A plataforma desenvolvida utiliza de Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) o que proporciona a característica de reconfiguração. Neste projeto foi proposta e validada uma estratégia de injeção de falhas do tipo Stuck-At-Zero, aliado a um sistema automático para coleta de vetores de teste e para a síntese em diferentes frequências de acesso aos módulos de memória. A etapa de validação do protótipo desenvolvido possibilitou reportar a captura de 131.751 falhas, graças ao framework criado para acompanhar a tarefa de injeção de falhas. / This work consists on a proposal of a DDR3 SDRAM memory module reconfigurable test platform. Memory module testers are usually closed architecture systems, in which the user has little flexibility in their use. In this scenario, a low-cost portable platform, which enables the user to describe his own test algorithm becomes interesting. This work explores the use of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) in order to construct a fully reconfigurable testing platform. In this work a Stuck-At-Zero fault injection strategy was proposed and validated. Results report the success in executing fault detection algorithms as well as the software framework developed for the fault injection campaign.

L'évolution de la technologie VLSI permet aux systèmes sur puce (SoCs) d'intégrer de nombreuses fonctions hétérogènes dans une seule puce et demande, en raison de contraintes économiques, une unique mémoire externe partagée (SDRAM). Par conséquent, la conception du système de mémoire principale, et plus particulièrement l'architecture du contrôleur de mémoire, est devenu un facteur très important dans la détermination de la performance globale du système. Le choix d'un contrôleur de mémoire qui répond aux besoins de l'ensemble du système est une question complexe. Cela nécessite l'exploration de l'architecture du contrôleur de mémoire, puis la validation de chaque configuration par simulation. Bien que l'exploration de l'architecture du contrôleur de mémoire soit un facteur clé pour une conception réussite d'un système, l'état de l'art sur les contrôleurs de mémoire ne présente pas des architectures aussi flexibles que nécessaire pour cette tâche. Même si certaines d'entre elles sont configurables, l'exploration est restreinte à des ensembles limités de paramètres tels que la profondeur des tampons, la taille du bus de données, le niveau de la qualité de service et la distribution de la bande passante. Plusieurs classes de trafic coexistent dans les applications réelles, comme le trafic de service au mieux et le trafic de service garanti qui accèdent à la mémoire partagée d'une manière concurrente. En conséquence, la considération de l'interaction entre le système de mémoire et la structure d'interconnexion est devenue vitale dans les SoCs actuels. Beaucoup de réseaux sur puce (NoCs) fournissent des services aux classes de trafic pour répondre aux exigences des applications. Cependant, très peu d'études considèrent l'accès à la SDRAM avec une approche système, et prennent en compte la spécificité de l'accès à la SDRAM dans les systèmes sur puce à base de réseaux intégrés. Cette thèse aborde le sujet de l'accès à la mémoire dynamique SDRAM dans les systèmes sur puce à base de réseaux intégrés. Nous introduisons une architecture de contrôleur de mémoire totalement configurable basée sur des blocs fonctionnels configurables, et proposons un modèle de simulation associé relativement précis temporellement et à haut niveau d'abstraction. Ceci permet l'exploration du sous-système de mémoire grâce à la facilité de configuration de l'architecture du contrôleur de mémoire. En raison de la discontinuité de services entre le réseau sur puce et le contrôleur de mémoire, nous proposons également dans le cadre de cette thèse un protocole de contrôle de flux de bout en bout pour accéder à la mémoire à travers un contrôleur de mémoire multiports. L'idée, simple sur le principe mais novatrice car jamais proposée à notre connaissance, se base sur l'exploitation des informations sur l'état du contrôleur de mémoire dans le réseau intégré. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent qu'en contrôlant l'injection du trafic de service au mieux dans le réseau intégré, notre protocole augmente les performances du trafic de service garanti en termes de bande passante et de latence, tout en préservant la bande passante moyenne du trafic de service au mieux. / The ongoing advancements in VLSI technology allow System-on-Chip (SoC) to integrate many heterogeneous functions into a single chip, but still demand, because of economical constraints, a single and shared main off-chip SDRAM. Consequently, main memory system design, and more specifically the architecture of the memory controller, has become an increasingly important factor in determining the overall system performance. Choosing a memory controller design that meets the needs of the whole system is a complex issue. This requires the exploration of the memory controller architecture, and then the validation of each configuration by simulation. Although the architecture exploration of the memory controller is a key to successful system design, state of the art memory controllers are not as flexible as necessary for this task. Even if some of them present a configurable architecture, the exploration is restricted to limited sets of parameters such as queue depth, data bus size, quality-of-service level, and bandwidth distribution. Several classes of traffic co-exist in real applications, e.g. best effort traffic and guaranteed service traffic, and access the main memory. Therefore, considering the interaction between the memory subsystem and the interconnection system has become vital in today's SoCs. Many on chip networks provide guaranteed services to traffic classes to satisfy the applications requirements. However, very few studies consider the SDRAM access within a system approach, and take into account the specificity of the SDRAM access as a target in NoC-based SoCs. This thesis addresses the topic of dynamic access to SDRAM in NoC-based SoCs. We introduce a totally customizable memory controller architecture based on fully configurable building components and design a high level cycle approximate model for it. This enables the exploration of the memory subsystem thanks to the ease of configuration of the memory controller architecture. Because of the discontinuity of services between the network and the memory controller, we also propose within the framework of this thesis an Extreme End to End flow control protocol to access the memory device through a multi-port memory controller. The simple yet novel idea is to exploit information about the memory controller status in the NoC. Experimental results show that by controlling the best effort traffic injection in the NoC, our protocol increases the performance of the guaranteed service traffic in terms of bandwidth and latency, while maintaining the average bandwidth of the best effort traffic.

<p>This thesis evaluates the possibility to replace the manufacturer dependent JTAG device used in the production tests of IPTV set-top boxes for storing the boot loader in the main memory in order to start the box for the first time. An FPGA based prototype was built in order to see if it is possible to record the JTAG signals, to an external DDR SDRAM, without understanding them and be able to perform a delayed playback resulting in the same bahavoir as with the original JTAG device.Overall the thesis was succesful and it shows that it is infact feasible to create a JTAG recorder based on an FPGA. A lot of data is used for storing the sequence though so the use of a fast memory is cruicial. However in this thesis the speed of both the recording and the delayed playback was reduced in order to work properly.</p>

This thesis evaluates the possibility to replace the manufacturer dependent JTAG device used in the production tests of IPTV set-top boxes for storing the boot loader in the main memory in order to start the box for the first time. An FPGA based prototype was built in order to see if it is possible to record the JTAG signals, to an external DDR SDRAM, without understanding them and be able to perform a delayed playback resulting in the same bahavoir as with the original JTAG device.Overall the thesis was succesful and it shows that it is infact feasible to create a JTAG recorder based on an FPGA. A lot of data is used for storing the sequence though so the use of a fast memory is cruicial. However in this thesis the speed of both the recording and the delayed playback was reduced in order to work properly.

This work presents on-orbit experiments conducted to validate SEU mitigation and detection techniques on FPGA devices and to measure SEU rates in FPGAs and SDRAM. These experiments were designed for the Cibola Flight Experiment Satellite (CFESat), which is an operational technology pathfinder satellite built around 9 Xilinx Virtex FPGAs and developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The on-orbit validation experiments described in this work have operated for over four thousand FPGA device days and have validated a variety of SEU mitigation and detection techniques including triple modular redundancy, duplication with compare, reduced precision redundancy, and SDRAM and FPGA block memory scrubbing. Regional SEU rates and the change in CFE's SEU rate over time show the measurable, expected effects of the South Atlantic Anomaly and the cycle of solar activity on CFE's SEU rates. The results of the on-orbit experiments developed for this work demonstrate that FPGA devices can be used to provide reliable, high-performance processing to space applications when proper SEU mitigation strategies are applied to the designs implemented on the FPGAs.

More and more embedded systems choose ARM-based micro-controllers as CPU. If no embedded OS built with the system, the application scope will be restricted. Therefore, the need of embedded OS is vital. There are many embedded OS¡¦s in the market, but the embedded Linux has many advantages and is widely accepted. Commercial embedded Linux takes less refund than other embedded OS¡¦s. The kernel and most applications are distributed in GPL open source copyright, and is highly portable to many machine platforms. Presently, the hardware key-technology is highly skilled. The margin of 3C industrial has gone down rapidly. Therefore, people focus on adapting integrated technology to practicality and innovation to make cost down. Developers choose appropriate ARM micro-controllers according to demanding functionality of their products. The microcontroller is not necessary running with Linux distribution. Two approaches can be used to resolve the embedded OS issue. The first approach is porting Linux to the platform without any refund. The second approach is to pay for commercial Linux. Embedded system peripheral devices aim at powerful functionalities and economy. For instance, UART interface is cheap and low data transfer rate. The target board communicates with host via RS-232. RS-232 acts as serial console to play dumb terminal under Linux. Industrial applications often make use of RS-xxx for UART physical transmission layer. For instance, RS-485 applies modbus protocol to build cheap monitor systems. Network transmission is a necessary function, and it generally achieves high data transfer rate application through Ethernet. The UNIX-like network socket has served network application very well. Embedded systems are usually diskless systems. In order to keep permanent data, using flash memory as block disk system is a widely adapted strategy and which operates flash memory through MTD subsystems¡][28]¡^. An MTD subsystem contains two different modules, ¡§user¡¨and ¡§driver¡¨. In the driver module, CFI¡][40]¡^ is applied to probe flash chip, partition it and provide operating function. Flash translation layer and file-system are applied in the user module. MTD BLOCK is used to emulate the flash partitions as block devices which are then mounted into Linux virtual file system¡]VFS¡^with JFFS2 type, designed according to the feature of flash devices. In this thesis, we will describe in detail the procedure of porting Linux to ARM micro-controllers. The motivation of the work is introduced in chapter 1. In chapter 2, we introduce development tools and the main flow of the porting procedure. In chapter 3, we describe the LH79525 platform and the main perepherals on the target board, then introduce the ARM programmer model. In chapter 4, we examine the required knowledge and the important issues for porting ARM Linux. In chapter 5, we describe the details of porting Linux to run with Sharp LH79525, including modifying the key source codes and adjusting kernel configuration for embedding the UART, ethernet MAC, and MTD subsystem. In chapter 6, we do step-by-step validation and apply an integrated application with the LF-314CP temperature controller¡][46]¡^ by law-chain technology for the LH79525 target board running with the ported ARM Linux. In chapter 7, we present some issues for future work and improvement, then make a conclusion for the thesis.

Dispositivos integrados de sistemas-em-chip (SoC), especialmente aqueles dedicados às aplicações multimídia, processam grandes quantidades de dados armazenados em memórias. O desempenho das portas de memória afeta diretamente no desempenho do sistema. A melhor utilização do espaço de armazenamento de dados e a redução do custo e do consumo de potência dos sistemas eletrônicos encorajam o desenvolvimento de arquiteturas eficientes para controladores de memória. Essa melhoria deve ser alcançada tanto para interfaces com memórias internas quanto externas ao chip. Em sistemas de processamento de vídeo, por exemplo, memórias de grande capacidade são necessárias para armazenar vários quadros de imagem enquanto que os algoritmos de compressão fazem a busca por redundâncias. No caso de sistemas implementados em tecnologia FPGA é possível utilizar os blocos de memória disponíveis internamente ao FPGA, os quais são limitados a poucos mega-bytes de dados. Para aumentar a capacidade de armazenamento de dados é necessário usar elementos de memória externa e um núcleo de propriedade intelectual (IP) de controlador de memória é necessário. Contudo, seu desenvolvimento é uma tarefa muito complexa e nem sempre é possível utilizar uma solução "sob demanda". O uso de FPGAs para prototipar sistemas permite ao desenvolvedor integrar módulos rapidamente. Nesse caso, a verificação do projeto é uma questão importante a ser considerada no desenvolvimento de um sistema complexo. Controladores de memória de alta velocidade são extremamente sensíveis aos atrasos de propagação da lógica e do roteamento. A síntese a partir de uma descrição em linguagem de hardware (HDL) necessita da verificação de sua compatibilidade com as especificações de temporização pré-determinadas. Como solução para esse problema, é apresentado nesse trabalho um IP do controlador de memória DDR SDRAM com função de BIST (Built-In Self-Test) integrada, onde o teste de memória é utilizado para verificar o funcionamento correto do controlador. / Many integrated Systems-on-Chip (SoC) devices, specially those dedicated to multimedia applications, process large amounts of data stored on memories. The performance of the memories ports directly affects the performance of the system. Optimization of the usage of data storage and reduction of cost and power consumption of the electronic systems encourage the development of efficient architectures for memory controllers. This improvement must be reached either for embedded or external memories. In systems for video processing, for example, large memory arrays are needed to store several video frames while compression algorithms search for redundancies. In the case of FPGA system implementation, it is possible to use memory blocks available inside FPGA, but for only a few megabytes of data. To increase data storage capacity it is necessary to use external memory devices and a memory controller intellectual property (IP) core is required. Nevertheless, its development is a very complex task and it is not always possible to have a custom solution. Using FPGA for system prototyping allows the developer to perform rapid integration of modules to exercise a hardware version. In this case, test is an important issue to be considered in a complex system design. High speed memory controllers are very sensitive to gate and routing delays and the synthesis from a hardware description language (HDL) needs to be verified to comply with predefined timing specifications. To overcome these problems, a DDR SDRAM controller IP was developed which integrate the BIST (Built-In Self-Test) function, where the memory test is used to check the correct functioning of the DDR controller.

Dispositivos integrados de sistemas-em-chip (SoC), especialmente aqueles dedicados às aplicações multimídia, processam grandes quantidades de dados armazenados em memórias. O desempenho das portas de memória afeta diretamente no desempenho do sistema. A melhor utilização do espaço de armazenamento de dados e a redução do custo e do consumo de potência dos sistemas eletrônicos encorajam o desenvolvimento de arquiteturas eficientes para controladores de memória. Essa melhoria deve ser alcançada tanto para interfaces com memórias internas quanto externas ao chip. Em sistemas de processamento de vídeo, por exemplo, memórias de grande capacidade são necessárias para armazenar vários quadros de imagem enquanto que os algoritmos de compressão fazem a busca por redundâncias. No caso de sistemas implementados em tecnologia FPGA é possível utilizar os blocos de memória disponíveis internamente ao FPGA, os quais são limitados a poucos mega-bytes de dados. Para aumentar a capacidade de armazenamento de dados é necessário usar elementos de memória externa e um núcleo de propriedade intelectual (IP) de controlador de memória é necessário. Contudo, seu desenvolvimento é uma tarefa muito complexa e nem sempre é possível utilizar uma solução "sob demanda". O uso de FPGAs para prototipar sistemas permite ao desenvolvedor integrar módulos rapidamente. Nesse caso, a verificação do projeto é uma questão importante a ser considerada no desenvolvimento de um sistema complexo. Controladores de memória de alta velocidade são extremamente sensíveis aos atrasos de propagação da lógica e do roteamento. A síntese a partir de uma descrição em linguagem de hardware (HDL) necessita da verificação de sua compatibilidade com as especificações de temporização pré-determinadas. Como solução para esse problema, é apresentado nesse trabalho um IP do controlador de memória DDR SDRAM com função de BIST (Built-In Self-Test) integrada, onde o teste de memória é utilizado para verificar o funcionamento correto do controlador. / Many integrated Systems-on-Chip (SoC) devices, specially those dedicated to multimedia applications, process large amounts of data stored on memories. The performance of the memories ports directly affects the performance of the system. Optimization of the usage of data storage and reduction of cost and power consumption of the electronic systems encourage the development of efficient architectures for memory controllers. This improvement must be reached either for embedded or external memories. In systems for video processing, for example, large memory arrays are needed to store several video frames while compression algorithms search for redundancies. In the case of FPGA system implementation, it is possible to use memory blocks available inside FPGA, but for only a few megabytes of data. To increase data storage capacity it is necessary to use external memory devices and a memory controller intellectual property (IP) core is required. Nevertheless, its development is a very complex task and it is not always possible to have a custom solution. Using FPGA for system prototyping allows the developer to perform rapid integration of modules to exercise a hardware version. In this case, test is an important issue to be considered in a complex system design. High speed memory controllers are very sensitive to gate and routing delays and the synthesis from a hardware description language (HDL) needs to be verified to comply with predefined timing specifications. To overcome these problems, a DDR SDRAM controller IP was developed which integrate the BIST (Built-In Self-Test) function, where the memory test is used to check the correct functioning of the DDR controller.