Description

You will need to submit your project proposal online at https://goo.gl/forms/OLj2TVYYS79CGVBb2 by
There should be only one project proposal submission per group!
Print out the confirmation page (or save it), to prove you have submitted your proposal. Make sure that your submission goes through, because TAs will be providing feedback, via email, on your electronically-submitted proposal. The TAs will also be referring to these proposals, as well as the feedback provided to you on things you needed to change, when marking your weekly project progress.
For your project, we will be marking you on whether you meet your personal goals for the project, as well as course-level goals. The course-level goals for the project are:
1. For you to demonstrate your understanding of digital logic, hardware, and Verilog.
2. For you to implement a creative application of these topics.
1.1 Project Scope
When thinking about the course project, you should aim to implement something original. One unoriginal project idea that tends to reoccur is the game of Pong. The game of pong is not an acceptable project, because it is a simple extension of part III of lab 7.
Of course, in a large class like this one, there will inevitably be some project ideas that will be implemented by multiple teams independently. The TAs will scrutinize project proposals for similarities and flag any proposals that implement similar ideas. Such teams will be asked to submit their work (e.g., Verilog code and .do files) at the end of the project, and their work will be compared against work of other teams with similar ideas to ensure that all teams worked independently.
1.3 Proposal Content
Your proposal will be the completed google form (link listed earlier) and will contain:
1. Your and your project partner’s names, student numbers and UofT emails.
2. The title of your project.
3. One paragraph description of the project.
Please be specific in your description. This describtion should summarize the basic functionality of your hardware design and explicitly mention how the user will interact with it (e.g., using VGA, PS2 keyboard, switches).
We will implement Pong, which is a two player game where each player controls a paddle that can move up and down on each vertical side of the screen. A ball bounces across the screen and each player’s goal is to cause the ball to touch the opponent’s side of the screen and prevent the ball from touching the player’s own side of the screen by using the paddle to bounce the ball back into the field. If the ball touches one of the sides of the screen, the other player will score a point and the ball will reset. The game will keep a running score for each player on the HEX displays and will keep playing until one player reaches a predetermined score (e.g., 11). The players will control the movement of the paddles using a set of keys from the PS2 keyboard. If time permits, we will dynamically increase the speed of the ball as the game progresses.
We will implement the Pong game with a bouncing ball and paddles.
4. What will you accomplish for the first milestone?
Please be specific and indicate which partner will implement, or take the lead on, which part.
Implement the following parts of the datapath:
Delay and score counter, and collision detection FSM, including simulations and basic testing on the board (Tony)
X and Y counters, frame counter, and random number generator for ball direction, including simulations and basic testing on the board (Anne)
A bad description example (not specific, no breakdown between partners):
We will implement as many parts of the datapath as we can.
5. What will you accomplish for the second milestone?
Please be specific and indicate which partner will implement which part, just like for the first milestone.
6. What will you accomplish for the third milestone? (i.e. what your completed project will look like.) Don’t just say “everything” just because this is the final milestone; describe the final components, indicating which partner will complete which part.
Combine FSM controlling the drawing with X and Y counters and simulate to ensure it works (Anne).
Combine Frame, and delay counter and simulate to ensure it works (Tony).
Figure out how to interface with the keyboard (Anne).
Simulate scoring counter to ensure it works (Tony).
Combine all parts and debug on the board (Anne and Tony).
7. How this project relates to material covered in CSC258. It is important to spell this out. The bulk of the work in your project should be related to course material (digital logic, Verilog, …).
Our project uses counters and registers for data storage. It also uses adders to compute coordinates. These components are assembled into two independent datapaths. Several complex FSMs are used to control the datapath and facilitate communication with the keyboard and the VGA.
8. Why this project is cool (for both CSC258 students and non-CSC258 students) and why the idea of working on this appeals to you personally.
Show off your creativity, and try to have fun with the project. If you pick a project you are excited about, the work will be less tedious and you will get a better sense of achievement!
2 Project Milestones
For your project milestones, we will be marking you as follows.
• Week 1 (worth 3% of your final grade) • Week 2 (worth 3% of your final grade)
• Week 3 (worth 6% of your final grade)
For the final milestone, please prepare a brief presentation (4-6 slides) showing the high level block diagram of the circuit you implemented, screenshots of simulations you performed, any difficulties you encountered and how you tackled them, and what you learned. Finally, include a summary table indicating which partner completed which part of the project.
Finally, note that if TAs find that one lab partner did significantly more work than the other partners, they will award marks proportionately. This applies to marking of all three milestones.
3 Advice
• Using hierarchical design for your code will be invaluable. Make sure you draw a high-level schematic which specifies the various components and how they are interconnected. It might help if you write down a paragraph about the expected functionality of each of these components (i.e., its specification). Repeat this process iteratively until you have a clear idea of what each module should implement.
• Do thorough testing of each module before you integrate multiple modules in your final design. Having separate simulations of each module using multiple ‘do’ files will help you with testing.
• Coordinating work with your partner is key. Split work. Communicate frequently!
• TAs are here to help you, so make sure to take advantage of that. Ask them for advice, but don’t expect them to implement the project for you.
• Do not spend time on components unrelated to CSC258 material as that work will not contribute to your final project mark. In general, avoid using Arduino or Raspberry Pi or complex physical hardware circuits you build by hand.
• If you anticipate a specific component to be challenging, then have a back-up plan. For example, if you want to use the keyboard to provide inputs to your hardware design and this does not work, you can provide input via the switches and/or keys on the DE1-SoC board instead. If possible, implement and test the simple implementation using switches/keys first, then deal with keyboard input after the simple version already works. As another example, if you are implementing a game that will accelerate as the user plays the game, implement the game at fixed speed first, then deal with acceleration after the basic version already works.
• Backup plans are also good for internal features or modules within your system!
• Don’t forget to back-up your code frequently. It is also a good idea to make a copy of a file that has working code, before you start modifying it to add new functionality, so you do not accidentally lose your work. Or use version control software.
4 Past CSC258 Projects (Winter 2015)
Cyclone Racer Yaroslav Taben, Qiao Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AfWiH-4YLQ
TicTacToe (with graphics) Roman Polyanovsky, Umut Akkaya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5ulaAOu7QU
Catching Banana Bryan (Man Yeung) Li, KwangJern Lee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP1Z-7yjimM
Keypad Puzzle Katie Datsenko, Chloe Duan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1hH2x2ouWI
The Dream Keyboard Adam Kasztenny, Doga Ister https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8ZHRP-FADo
Digimon Virtual Pet Claudia Chen, Jerry Wang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzPu2EivWvg
Rock Band Mack Heller, Gavin Barill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoUmot7Mn3A