FPAA Concepts

Although FPAA devices are not the central focus of the class this semester, some topics may touch on this material, or utilize this material. You might find it beneficial somepoint in the semester to utilize the FPAA device concept, or even measure data from FPAA devices. Therefore, we wanted to make some data explicitly accessible for this course.

FPAA Reading Material

You might find these papers useful, since they describe the IC, the tools, and the remote testing infrastructure.

Documentation on setting up your system FPAA
Scilab / Xcos Transistor Modeling
large-scale Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAA). First System on Chip (SoC) FPAA Integrated Circuit
FPAA design tools.
- FPAA Scilab / Xcos tools
- Download FPAA tools / Ubuntu VM
FPAA Remote System. Journal Publications.
Floating-gate programming. SoC FPAA programming infrastructure
Scaling of Floating-Gate Devices (350nm to 40nm) and Resulting FPAA architecture scaling.
FPAA Remote System User Suggestions

Initial FPAA setup Data

In some classes, we get the class using the FPAA setup right from the beginning. The typical setup / assignment is below which might be helpful in this case. You do not need to do this assignment for this course.

We want to start the class making sure everyone has a working setup / infrastructure using the FPAA IC. In your summary, you need to mention your FPAA board setup results. including a plot showing remote and in-class measurement results.

Download the FPAA toolset from the site and get the resulting VM running on your laptop. You must have virtual box on your laptop, including the service pack. Import the resulting Ubuntu (linux) VM.
Run this VM. The password is "reverse". When you have loaded the resulting VM, press the "CADSP" button on the left side, wait abit for things to load, and you will have the FPAA toolset in front of you. The command window should look a lot like MATLAB, and you should try some simple MATLAB like experiments (i.e. Making plots).
The blue GUI will have the controls you will require. If you have launched things correctly, it should be rather obvious (Blue background, with gray-ish buttons).
We will want to look at least one test cases before you get into class. The GUI block has a pulldown menu. I would recommend using a DAC -- ADC block. These circuits will be available on the demo GUI block.
As we have a remote test system, which just became operational since our last class. You use exactly the same toolset as if you had a board, but you email the file rather than programming a local board. The results will be emailed back to your email. Of course, we both have record of the email, and we have the right to ask which email was used.
The remote system changed recently to make sending files easier without having email security issues. The best approach we have is allowing one to send email using say a gmail account. It will require you to input your account name and password, but that info is only used to authenticate your email (POP) submission.

What you will do when you are in class:

We will get every group of 2 working to do the same two experiments you did with the remote system.
We will check to see the assignment (remote system, etc.) is done at the beginning of class
You will need to connect a board through your laptop's USB port, and make sure it is communicating into the VM.
You will take the above circuit(s) and compile them to the FPAA board, and will compare the resulting measurements. Your group will need plots of these measurements, and will compare the measurements with the remote system.

You need to have a grounding strap to use the equipment. Many of you might already have one. Yes, you would only need one per group, although each person in a group having one would be very helpful. These boards are unique, and although they look like industrial quality boards (and are close), they were developed here at GT, so you must take precautions. It is costly to replace, and I want to spare all of you of having to deal with that concern. Assume this is a requirement.