---

This Week's Schedule

	Mon 8:30	Fri 8:30	Fri 12:30
	Lecture	Lecture	Lecture	Tutorial	Lab Activity	Deadlines	Reading

more...

---

People

Instructor	Mark Aagaard	E7-5438
	maagaard@uwaterloo.ca	Mon 11:30am-1:00pm
Lab Instructor	Eric Praetzel	E2-2357
	praetzel@uwaterloo.ca	by request
Tutorial TA	Ahmed Ayoub
	a3ayoub@uwaterloo.ca
Lab TA	Shubham Ranjan
	s2ranjan@uwaterloo.ca
Lab TA	Arash Khoshparvar
	akhoshpa@uwaterloo.ca

---

Times and Places

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri
Lec E7-4053 8:30 - 9:50 Aagaard	Tutorial E7-4053 8:30 - 9:50 Ayoub			Lec E7-4053 8:30 - 9:50 Aagaard
				Lec (odd weeks) E7-4053 12:30 - 1:20 Aagaard
	Lab 1 E2 2356A 1:30 - 2:50 Ranjan, Khoshparav	Lab 2 E2 2356A 1:30 - 2:50 Ranjan, Khoshparav	Lab 3 E2 2356A 1:30 - 2:50 Ranjan, Khoshparav

---

Marking

The standard division of marks is:

Lab-1	1%
Lab-2	2%
Lab-3	3%
Project	24%
Midterm	20%
Final Exam	50%

There are two factors that cause the weights of the marks to be adjusted:

1. If the final-exam mark is better than the midterm mark, then the weight of the final exam is increased and the weight of the midterm is decreased. The final exam weight can increase from 50% up to a maximum of 60%. The midterm weight can decrease from 20% down to a minimum of 10%. Thus, the combined weight of the midterm and final exam is always 70%. The measure of whether the final exam mark is "better" than the midterm mark is with respect to the average difference between the marks on the final and midterm.
2. If the weighted average of the midterm mark and final exam mark is less than 60, then the combined weight of the exams increases linearily from 70% up to 100% for a combined exam mark of 50 or less.
3. Special for 2020 Winter: Any student who fails the final exam has the option to do an oral exam with the instructor to demonstrate sufficient knowledge to pass the course.

The principles behind the rules for adjusting the weighting are:

1. The marking scheme should be stable, in that a small change to the inputs (raw marks) should cause only a small change to the output (grade in the course).
2. The grade in the course should reflect overall knowledge of the course material.
3. If a student does poorly on the midterm and does well on the final exam, the final exam is more reflective of the student's overall knowledge of the course. This is the justification of adjusting the weight between the midterm and final. The minimum weight of the midterm is 10%, because the final exam is unable to cover all of the material in the course.
4. The exams reflect the individual work of a student. If a student's exam mark indicates a failing mastery of the course material, then the student should fail the course. Thus a combined average of less than 50 for the midterm and final results in a course grade of less than 50.

Calendar Description

Design and modelling of digital systems using hardware description languages. Digital system design process. Impact of various implementation technologies. Design for testability. Fault tolerant systems. High performance systems. Project
Prereq: ECE 222, 223 and (3B Comp. Eng. or higher than 3B Elect. Eng.)

Notes, Textbook, etc

Course notes and lecture slides

The course notes and lecture slides will be the primary source of reading material for the course. They will be available on the web under Course Material.

Piazza Q&A Forum

The Piazza ece327 discussion forum is the primary forum for announcements, questions and answers. You are encouraged to read it regularly, and to respond to other students' questions if you have some helpful information.

Tutorials

The tutorials will cover problems from the Problems and Solutions documents. The first document contains problem statements and the second contains solutions. The problems come from previous midterm and final exams, and so are a good indication of the material that will be tested on the exam. The specific problems that will be covered each week are listed on the schedule.

Computer and Lab Facilities

The course will use synthesis software from Mentor Graphics (Precision RTL) and Altera (Quartus) and simulation software from Mentor Graphics (ModelSim).

• The software is installed on the ECE Ubuntu and Nexus computers. For information on the servers, point a browser at https://ece.uwaterloo.ca/Nexus/arbeau/clients.
• The Altera FPGA boards are in E2-2363, the door combination for this room will be given out in lecture when the room is ready for use. The room is available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, except when reserved for other courses.

Labs

There are three labs to introduce you to VHDL, the simulation software, the synthesis software, and the FPGAs that we will be using. The third lab is a design challenge/opportunity, and so is more difficult than than the first two labs.

Lab 1	Adders and flip-flops
Lab 2	State machines
Lab 3	Preview of the project

You may work individually or in groups of two for the labs.

Project

The project will be the design of a variation of a Kirsch edge-detector circuit in VHDL. The project shall be done in groups four. Marking will be based on area/performance, correct functionality, a demo, and a brief report.

Midterm

• Almost all of the questions at the end of the chapters come from prior exams, so all of the questions are good examples to study from.
• Midterm exams usually have a set of short questions that cover as many topics as possible, and then a few longer questions that require more detailed work. The topics for the in-depth questions are chosen randomly from lectures and course notes, with the provision that at the end of the course, the percentage of the mark that comes from each topic will be roughly proportional to the amount of material on that topic in the lectures and course notes.
• The midterm will be closed book, closed notes. Calculators will be allowed.
• The proctors and instructors will not answer questions, except in cases where an error on the exam is suspected. If you are confused about a question, write down your assumptions or interpretation. This procedure ensures that all students receive the same information and that all exams are marked consistently.

Final Exam

• The final exam will cover all of the material in the course, with the provision that at the end of the course, the percentage of the mark that comes from each topic will be roughly proportional to the amount of material on that topic in the lectures and course notes.
• Almost all of the questions at the end of the chapters come from prior exams, so all of the questions are good examples to study from.
• The final will be closed book, closed notes. Calculators will be allowed.
• The proctors and instructors will not answer questions, except in cases where an error on the exam is suspected. If you are confused about a question, write down your assumptions or interpretation. This procedure ensures that all students receive the same information and that all exams are marked consistently.

Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Waterloo
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1