High-Level Abstraction for Teaching Smart Systems Design ...ati.ttu.ee/ewme2014/files/P_S04_04.pdf · Arduino : Open-Source Imagination • Italian project iniated by Massimo Banzi

6/25/2014 | Microelectronic Systems Research Group | François Philipp | EWME 2014 | 1

François Philipp and Manfred Glesner 10th European Workshop on Microelectronics Education May 15th 2014

High-Level Abstraction for Teaching Smart Systems Design with Modular Hardware


Outline

1. Introduction Open-Source Hardware and Smart Systems

2. Arduino : a success story Building blocks Experiences from selected projects

3. Abstracting hardware acceleration An FPGA-based wireless sensor node Deployment tools

4. Conclusion


Open-source Hardware

Open-Source Hardware PlatformAssembly Instructions

PCB Layout and Schematics

Online CommunityBill of Materials

Firmware

Mechanical Data Documentation

Integrated Development Environment


Open-soure Hardware projects

Source: JeeLabs

• The Plug-and-Play Concept is flexible and can be customized from small until medium-size projects.

• The custom-made design is also low cost and the cost can be optimized for different projects

Plug-and-Play Concept by JeeLabs

The Lego-Like Main Board from JeeLabs

ADC Plug

DC Motor Driver Plug

Ethernet Plug

Radio Module Plug

EEPROM/Memory Plug

The Main Board with Power Plug

• The Plug-and-Play Concept is enabled thanks to standardized data communication protocols


Building blocks of Smart Systems

Energy Harvesting – Power Management

SensorsLow Power

Digital Processing

Communication

Embedded Software

Actuators


Applications

Quadcopter

3D Printer Satellite

+ =


Arduino : Open-Source Imagination

• Italian project iniated by Massimo Banzi

• One of the most successful open-source hardware project • Huge community and design resources

• Created in 2005 because a “Simple and cheap microcontroller couldn‘t be found”

• About 700,000 “official” boards sold

• About the same amount of spinoffs


Arduino Hardware

Arduino main board Arduino Wifi Shield Custom Extension


Arduino Hardware


Arduino Software

Arduino

Processing

GCC AVR-DUDE

Wire

Java

Programma2003

AVR - libc

Community Contributors


Experiences with Arduino / Open-Source Hardware

• Student projects

• Artist / Hobbyist projects

• Seminar / Lab courses

Accelerometer FPGA RF SoCSPI

WirelessShield

Arduino

MIDI Shield

SPI

MIDI

Body Worn Smart Sensor

Synthesizer

MIDI


Lessons learned

Heterogeneous Modularity : Huge amount of supported extensions, sensors, actuators, communications, …. Make it suitable for a very borad range of projects

Scalability : Portable to multiple target processors, based on the same code and libraries, same interfaces

Programmability : Accessible programming model, all extensions are accompanied with a ready-to-use software library

Community : Huge amount of documentation and support online


Programmability

Xilinx slogan : “All Programmable”

-> does not make it easier to program (Reference Manual of Xilinx Zynq has 1836 pages -> Good luck!)

Arduino : restricted programming model

-> more programmable


Applying the concept to Hardware acceleration

• Background infos : • Wireless sensor node with low-power Flash FPGA

• FPGA handles computationally intensive taks (signal processing, encryption, etc.)

• Microcontroller handles networking and application control

• FPGA is programmed with an dynamically reconfigurable overlay • Restrictions of non-volatile memory

• FPGA too small for complex signal processing tasks

IGLOO AGL1000V5

CC2531

RF SoC FPGA

Control / Reconfiguration / Data Transfer

Data Acquisition / Preprocessing / Feature Extraction / Classification / Encryption / Error Correction

Mem

Mem

Buffer for local processing

Long-term logger

ADC Sensor

Wireless Communication / User Interaction / USB Transfer / Application Control


HaLOEWEn Hardware

Memory Extension ADC-DAC Extension

HaLOEWEn Main Board


HaLOEWEn Software

HaLOEWEn

Connectivity InterfacesVHDL - Verilog

Microcontroller SoftwareC / C++Synplify

– XSTOperators and Function Units

HDL – IP Core

GUI Java

Contiki - OSConfiguration Visualization

TCL Script

FPGA Networking IDE


Design flow


Abstraction : focus on software


Abstraction : focus on hardware


Projects based on the framework

• Hardware-oriented: • Reconfigurable operators for the overlay

• Power management units

• Application-oriented: • Wavelet-Analyzer and Spectrum-Analyzer

for condition monitoring of motors

• Classifier for inertial sensor data (movement recognition)


Back to the goals

• Heterogeneous Modularity : Bunch of extension modules, compatibility with Digilent PMODs, library of HW drivers available

• Scalability : Design implemented in VHDL and successfully ported to other boards and types of FPGAs (Xilinx), Software based on open-source OS Contiki available for many microcontrollers

• Programmability : Hardware acceleration abstracted by a configuration tool and libraries, WSN abstracted by the middleware


Conclusions

• Students get motivated by application-oriented projects

• Complexity and heterogeneity of the HW/SW required for the project can be abstracted to make the development more accessible

• But no black-box

• Document and open the underlying HW or SW to changes • Can still focus on optimizing sub-systems

• Top-down approach :

• Use a high-level framework for application deployment • Leave lower layers open for modifications


The End

Microelectronic Systems Research Group

Merckstraße 25, 64283 Darmstadt, Germany

Tel: +49 (0) 6151 16 – 4039

Web : www.mes.tu-darmstadt.de

Dipl.-Ing. François Philipp

[email protected]

Contact

Thank you for your attention !

Questions ?

Acknowledgments

LOEWE – Zentrum AdRIA (Adaptronics, Research,

Innovation and Applications)

Antonio Jesus Morero Mantas Jose Segui Perez

Ling Zhou Annette Philipp Manisha Lutra

Mohammed Reda Fathia

source picture title page : sstwireless.com

http://www.mes.tu-darmstadt.de/




mailto:[email protected]




High-Level Abstraction for Teaching Smart Systems Design ...ati.ttu.ee/ewme2014/files/P_S04_04.pdf · Arduino : Open-Source Imagination • Italian project iniated by Massimo Banzi

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