L1: Past Projects a SSD controller for DIMM flash chips Include AES encryption Two teams attempted Got flash DIMM built Got some communication via PCIE to host computer Never got the

18-545: ADVANCED DIGITAL DESIGN PROJECT

FALL 2016

BRANDON LUCIA

L1: PAST PROJECTS

18-545: FALL 2016

Administrative Stuff

Teams are / should be formed

Project Ideas due Wednesday, September 7

Lab1 due Wednesday, September 14

Getting started

Project Proposal Presentations on Monday, September 12

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18-545: FALL 2016

Project Proposal

What do you plan to do?

Game description and how it covers the requirements

Graphics, sound, user input, multi-player, scoring, fun

Hardware / Software plan

Architecture, block diagram

Peripherals?

Software functions

Description of major tasks, who is doing them

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18-545: FALL 2016

Proposal (2)

Schedule

Who’s doing what, when

When each major task will be complete

Milestones for each person

Resources

What outside resources you need

What you’ll use them for

Pointers to the resources

I understand this is all very preliminary and won’t hold you to the details

Major deviations will require discussions with me and my approval

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18-545: FALL 2016

Lab machines - your machines

You have accounts on machines in the lab

You should be able to sudo using your own password

DON'T DO ANYTHING STUPID

If you break/compromise the machine, it will be wiped and reinstalled

Don't change root password or add any root ssh keys

Don't add accounts without asking me/gripe

Install software at /usr/local, /opt or /home

Don't overwrite any base installed software

Don't allow automatic upgrades to get installed!

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18-545: FALL 2016

Today: Previous Projects

This is the 11th iteration of this course

First 2 years were taught by Prof Ken Mai

I’m copying his descriptions and advice here

2008 - 2015 project descriptions are by Prof Bill Nace

Previous final reports are on webpage

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VR Pacman

3D Pacman

OpenGL on workstation

Board handled game

VR helmet display

Viewpoint tracking

Not stereoscopic

Full-body swivel control

Hacked mouse + deskchair

Every Extend

Every Extend clone

Self-contained

Playstation 2 controller

Parallel port interface

Most complete game of 06

High score

Game modes

Bosses

Bomberman

Bomberman clone

Ported SDL lib to board

Had SDL Bomberman

implementation

Moved performance critical

portions of SDL library to

hardware

Sega Genesis controllers

Simple interface

SDL = Simple DirectMedia Layer, a cross-platform open-source multimedia C library

NES (06, 07)

NES clone

Bit-for-bit full hardware

implementation

Very ambitious

Much of the system working

Picture processor

Controller interface

Toy application

Bitten by …

Verification

Unit interfacing

Team dynamics

Graphics Processor

OpenGL GPU

GPU on board

Application sends OpenGL

calls to board via ethernet

Rendered a colored triangle

Bitten by …

Board capacity

Time

Asking for help too late

Inexperience

Instruction

BRAMFetch Unit

Instruction

Decoder

Coordinate

Transformation

Pipeline

Triangle

Rasterization

Pipeline

OpenGL

software

code

Frame buffer

BRAM

Ethernet

VGA

Physics Processor

Hardware physics processor

Similar to Ageia design

Board tracks objects

Workstation handles game

PPU working

Only toy application

Some issues with fitting design

on board

Bitten by …

Team dynamics

Team dynamics

Team dynamics

Networked Tetris

Multi-player Tetris

2 players/board

Networked boards

Most of game in hardware

Working game

Score

Networking

Bitten by …

Not too ambitious

Quake

Port of 1996 PC game Quake

3D first person shooter

Open-sourced in 1999

Running entirely on FPGA

Full input, sound, video, and

networking support

Hardware FPU

Networked 3 boards + PC

together in public demo

Guitar Hero

Port of Guitar Hero console

game

Used open-source Frets on Fire

for starting code base

Guitar (PS2 controller) interfaced

through parallel port

Most issues in synching sound,

video, and controller

Limited song library

Did not automate song input

18-545: FALL 2016

2008 Projects

Descent (i.e. Vertigo)

NanoSeige

“Xilroids” i.e. Asteroids with a Wii

NES

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Descent

3D first-person shooter

6 degree-of-freedom play

Released on 1995

Source released in 1997

Ported PhysicsFS and SDL

libraries

Networking and music never

completed

Otherwise complete game

Success due to:

Reading Pentium Chronicles

NanoSeige

Designed own game

Wanted massively parallel

hardware accelerated game

Something of an abstract real-

time strategy game

Worked hard all semester,

declared victory with whatever

they had built

Done in by

teamwork

didn’t follow any advice

XilRoids

Initially tried to build “Maelstrom”

a 1993 clone of Asteroids

Ran into difficulty, decided to

reset

Designed their own asteroids

variant

Used Wiimote for user input

Done in by

Decision to reset

NES (2008)

NES Clone

Full hardware implementation

Controller peripherals

“Virtual” cartridge interface

Used ROM images of

Bomberman, Tetris

Sound limited to single channel

Successful because

Worked to personal strengths

Relentless debugging

2009 Projects

Duck Hunt with WiiMote

GameBoy

MultiWilliams

OpenGL

Quake II

SSD research project (times 2)

Groups had choice of FPGA platform for first time

Vertex 2 Pro, Vertex 5-LX, Vertex 5-FX

Duck Hunt w/WiiMote

Simple “point-n-shoot” game

Using WiiMote, initially via straight

connection

“Settled” for connect via separate

laptop running java program to

convert

Programmed game “from scratch” as a

clone

Moderately successful

Flexible process

Stayed with Vertex 2 Pro board

GameBoy

8-bit handheld console from

late ‘80s

Original attempt was for GB

Color with link cable for

multi-player

Settled for original GB

Incomplete DMA

implementation led to

graphic corruption

No sound, link cable

MultiWilliams

Williams was an arcade manufacturer

in ‘80s

Defender, Joust, Stargate,

Robotron, others

MultiWilliams emulates all 4

But very different architecture

among games

Built really nice input platform

Vertex 2 Pro

Done in by:

Didn’t face complexity

OpenGL

Another attempt to build OpenGL

render pipeline

Fixed-point version due to FPGA

fabric limitations

Fixed-function pipeline

custom-designed VLIW processor

custom micro-assembler

Done in by:

Switched platforms mid-stream to

Vertex-5

Quake II

Quake II is a FPS from 97

Code is open sourced

Commercial Linux distro on

FPGA

No sound

Vector coprocessor

Done in by:

Switching platform to Vertex-5

SSD Research Projects

Build a SSD controller for DIMM flash chips

Include AES encryption

Two teams attempted

Got flash DIMM built

Got some communication via PCIE to host

computer

Never got the rest put together

Vertex 5-LX boards

Done in by:

Team issues

Willingness to be behind schedule

18-545: FALL 2016

2010 Projects

OpenGL GPU (take 3!)

Super NES

SSD (again)

Virtex Squared

XilDoom

Groups had choice of platform (V2Pro, V5LX, V5FX) and were

given minimal "hand-holding" with the toolchain

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18-545: FALL 2016

OpenGL Accelerator

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Hardware pipelined

Input was pre-compiled sequence of OpenGL commands in a file on

the CF card

non-interactive

Moderate framerate at low triangle count

No z-buffer

Done in by:

Took too long to make decisions

Super NES

16-bit console from early 90s

Hunted down CPU Verilog from the company

that originally manufactured it

Cool! Very legal

Done in by

Integration! 4 individual chip descriptions.

Didn't work together.

Testing strategy relied on integrated system,

so no proof the chips worked individually

SSD (Again)

Didn't work

'nuff said

Done in by

Teamwork

Teamwork

Relying on past work

18-545: FALL 2016

Vertex Squared

Designed their own ARM-like CPU

Integrated with 18-447

Multi-bus, not particularly fast

Then got a small musical rhythm game running on it

Success due to:

Lots of hard work

Smart use of tools

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XilDoom

Quintessential FPS

1993! More popular than

Windows '95

Open sourced in 97

Used Chocolate Doom

Reasonably successful

No networking or sound

18-545: FALL 2016

2011 Projects

Duck Hunt

Haxorus

Sidekick

Commodore 64

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Duck Hunt

Yet another version of the classic game

Shoot at ducks as they fly in somewhat random patterns

Custom MIPS CPU

Custom Unix-like kernel

Custom Duck Hunt source (C)

Done in by:

Integration

Team dynamics -- one member went AWOL. Nobody noticed

Didn’t hold each other accountable for missing deadlines

Haxorus

Music visualizer

Input from iPod, output to speaker

Render shapes to video

Kinect to detect control gestures

Change colors, shapes, etc

Reasons for Success

Not entirely certain, “surprise

success”

Somehow overcame lots of team

dynamics issues

HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=RR-UGS8EPH0&FEATURE=YOUTU.BE

At start: Image cross-correlation algorithm for Lunar X

Match images to lunar maps

At end: PCIE peripheral for image processing

Move data quickly to

FPGA for acceleration

Done in by

Relying on grad

student code

Saved by

Timely pivot to build

something useful

Sidekick

Commodore 64

Creative “4th path” to building a video game -- build the microcomputer

Commodore 64 is the most popular microcomputer in history

Wrote each of the 3 main chips in Verilog/VHDL

6510 CPU, Vic II video unit, sound chip (Yes! Sound!!)

Got games running: Galaxian,

Mario’s Brewery, Centipede,

Pac-Man (sort of), Frogger (sort of),

BASIC interpreter

Reasons for success

Did everything right

18-545: FALL 2016

2012 Projects

Arcade (1942)

Defender (Apple IIe)

Dysentery (Apple IIgs)

Gameboy Color

Sega Genesis

Ray Tracer

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18-545: FALL 2016

Arcade (1942)

Vertically scrolling shooter

Fly a P38 during the Pacific WW2

Sound from 1943

Stunning success!

Tuma Award

Success Due to

Good engineering decisions

Finished early and polished

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18-545: FALL 2016

Apple IIe (Team Defender)

6502 based PC from early 80s

Bailed on implementation of 6502

Used open design instead

Goal: Floppy disk drive, unrealized

Completed: Basic interpreter

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18-545: FALL 2016

Apple IIgs (Dysentery)

Expanded version of Apple II

GS == "graphics and sound"

65C816 CPU (16-bit)

With "Mega II" chip for emulation mode

Done in by

Spent too much time on disk drive

subsystem

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18-545: FALL 2016

Gameboy Color (Team FPGBC)

Another attempt (F09)

Complex architecture

Semi-successful

Carefully designed game dodged memory problems and didn't

use buggy instructions

Done in by:

Insufficient debug skills

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18-545: FALL 2016

Sega Genesis

16-bit console, early 90s

Successful project

Good sound, controller interface

Cartridge or ROM from flash

Success due to:

Hard work

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18-545: FALL 2016

Ray Tracer

Own design for ray tracer

Real time response to camera reposition

Serial port loading of a scene (XMODEM)

K-D tree describes a scene

"Research" style project

Success due to:

Hard work

Hard work

Hard work

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18-545: FALL 2016

2013 Projects

AstroTeam

Donkey Kong

Game Boy

Playstation

Super NES

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AstroTeam

Research project

Compute co-processor for

"Visual Odometry" calculations

PCI interface

Lots of math

Done in by:

Schedule

Timing issues

Long synthesis runs

18-545: FALL 2016

Donkey Kong

Very successful arcade game from 1981

2 person team

Used (but validated thoroughly) OpenCores.com Z80

Used Arcade panel

Success due to:

2 person team

Appropriately scoped project

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18-545: FALL 2016

Game Boy (Again)

Original Game Boy (Greyscale graphics version)

GPU doesn't support sprites

Cart. conn only supports Tetris

Sound works

Link cable works sometimes

Success due to:

Hard work

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18-545: FALL 2016

Playstation

Very ambitious goal: Playstation with all peripherals (like CD Drive)

Troubles with HDMI on VC707 board

No good hardware interface docs

Pivot: Build a GPU on Altera DE2-115 board

Success due to:

Painting the fence

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18-545: FALL 2016

Super NES

Revisit of F10 project

Integration trouble

CPU ⇔ GPU timing problems

Were able to prove that components were working

Sounds played from CPU

GPU displays a given frame buffer

Failure due to:

Took time to get model from vendor

Had to learn VHDL

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18-545: FALL 2016

2014 Projects

Atari 5200

Logic Analyzer

Digital Synth

Gameboy Color

IBM PC

N64

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Atari 5200

Very early console from Atari

Cartridge Connector

Complex, worked well

6502 CPU (common)

Success due to:

Decision to implement

everything themselves

Complete w/ case

Digital Logic Analyzer

Sample 32 channels at 100 MHz

SPI, I2C, UART, XMEM

Zynq 706 Board – Ran Linux on

the ARM w/ webserver

Node.js for UI

Lots of custom logic: sampling,

analysis, routing, etc

Failed to launch due to:

4-Person Team

Uncooperative Teammate

Digital Synth

Digital Synthesizer

MIDI from keyboard

Transform basic wave according to sliders/knobs

Required basic DSP: ADSR env., Filter, etc

Failed to Launch:

Too much time on MIDI interface, not starting early enough on DSP

Gameboy Color

YAGBA (Yet Another Gameboy

Attempt)

Reused prior years’ stuff

Cartridges’ contents came from

onboard Flash

Got ROMs from several games

working (including Pokemon

Crystal)

Success due to:

Overcame sluggish start

Used ChipScope to debug

IBM PC (5150)

The iconic personal computer

Motherboard implementation, chip by chip

Wrote a few BASIC games

Success due to:

One teammate’s unsuccessful efforts

were compartmentalized and discardable

Careful with schematics

N64

Complex console from 1996

Group thought it was possible w/o the

graphics chip

Even with some boostrapping code,

rough start: ran into bugs

Hasty version of Tron for Demo Day

Failed to launch due to:

4 person team

“eyes bigger than their stomachs”

18-545: FALL 2016

2015 Projects

Atari 7800

BattleZone

Ethernet Packet Analyzer

Centipede / Marble Madness

MorphCore

Neural Network Digit Classification

Pacman

Visual Odometry

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18-545: FALL 2016

Ethernet Packet Analyzer

Ambitious attempt to build a packet

analyzer/filter

Got a late start on key parts of the

network stack

Learned that Ethernet on FPGAs is still

primitive and not well documented

Failed to launch due to

Team dynamics

Very poor adherence to a schedule

Overly ambitious project with too much

ambiguity

18-545: FALL 2016

Centipede (formerly Marble

Madness)Both are classic arcade cabinets built

on approximately the same hardware

Cool, yet simple input peripheral

(trackball)

Sound called for external FM

synthesis implementation

Failed to launch due to:

One team member trying to do the

whole thing alone

Poor coordination and scheduling

Surprise complexity (i.e., around

sound)

18-545: FALL 2016

Battlezone

Go play it

Met the challenge of a poorly

documented, partial schematic for the

vector graphics unit

Succeeded due to:

Tireless debugging

Team of mixed disciplines

Tireless debugging

Very complete build, w/ full arcade

cabinet

18-545: FALL 2016

MorphCore

Very cool research computer architectures

Sometimes like a superscalar OoO core,

sometimes like several, single-issue cores

Challenged by the need to match real

software interfaces (i.e., the Linux ABI)

Mostly succeeded (though not complete) due

to:

Good planning

Lots of testing (bugs in borrowed code!)

18-545: FALL 2016

Neural Network Digit

Classification

Camera collects video, frames

classified by neural net as digit,

predicted digit outputted to HDMI

Very thorough demo, very cool

system, even included training

experiments.

Success due to:

Planning and software prototyping

Appreciating the complexity and not

underestimating the time for high

complexity components

Verilator – simulate as C++

18-545: FALL 2016

Project Choice

Choose wisely

Research available assets (code, manuals, schematics, etc)

Dig through project reports from past projects

Some are well-written and will provide advice

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