DSP Design Flow Workshop and Teaching Materials

Skills Gained

After completing this training, you will be able to:

• Understand why FPGAs lend to high-performance DSP design
• Understand the basics of Simulink
• Identify useful blocks in the System Generator blockset
• Model and simulate a System Generator design in Simulink
• Understand the hardware impact of various parameter settings
• Understand the mechanisms for control
• Understand the underlying clocking for multirate systems

Course Overview

Day 1

• FPGAs for DSP
• Introduction to System Generator for DSP
• Simulink Basics
• Lab 1: Using Simulink
  • Gain an introduction to Simulink through the simulation of a sine wave, changing the sample rate to analyze the output. Implement an hierarchical design via the creation of a simple filter.
• Basic Xilinx Design Capture
• Lab 2: Getting Started with Xilinx System Generator
  • Model a 12x8 MAC using blocks from the Xilinx blockset and simulate it in Simulink. The MAC will be used in a future lab for creating a MAC-based FIR filter.
• Signal Routing
• Lab 3: Signal Routing
  • Model and simulate logic for padding and un-padding data written to/read from FPGA block memory. This logic will be used in a future lab for creating a MAC-based FIR filter.

Day 2

• Implementing System Control
• Lab 4: Implementing System Control
  • Create an address generator using basic Xilinx blocks and the m-code block. The address generator will be used in a future lab for creating a MAC-based FIR filter.
• Multirate Systems
• Lab 5: Designing a MAC FIR
  • Using elements from the previous labs, model a MAC-based FIR filter and simulate it in Simulink. Test the filter in hardware via hardware-in-the-loop.
• Filter Design
• Lab 6: Designing a FIR Filter
  • Generate the coefficients for a band-pass filter using the Filter Design and Analysis (FDA) Tool. Model the bandpass filter using the Xilinx DA FIR and simulate it using white noise input. Test the filter in hardware via hardware-in-the-loop.