pe-apprentice

You write one processing element and take it all the way to a GDS

Where things are

All Verilog lives in rtl/. The only file you write is rtl/pe.sv.

rtl/
  pe.sv                 <-- YOU WRITE THIS, in week 3
  fxp.sv                given: fixed-point add and multiply
  pe_smoke_tb.sv        given: the week 3 test
  pe_vendor_drop.sv     given: a PE someone else wrote, for week 5
                        (week 5's own scaffold lives in week05-verification/)
  pe_array_2x2.sv       given: four of your PEs in a grid. Optional stretch.

One folder per week. Each has a README.md that is that week's lab handout. Do them in order.

Folder	Week	What you do	Tool
week01-overview/	1	Read about the whole chip design flow	none
week02-spec/	2	Write the PE's specification and timing diagrams	none
week03-rtl/	3	Write rtl/pe.sv and simulate it	Xcelium
week04-test-plan/	4	Plan how to break it	none
week05-verification/	5	Build a six-component testbench, hunt bugs	Xcelium
week06-timing/	6	Learn timing, predict your slow path	none
week07-synthesis/	7	Turn your RTL into gates	Genus
week08-floorplan/	8	Plan the physical layout	none
week09-pnr/	9	Place and route it	Innovus
week10-signoff/	10	Timing, DRC, LVS	Tempus, Assura
week11-demo/	11	Present it	none

Weeks with no tool are reading and paper. Weeks with a tool are hands on the chamber. They alternate on purpose: you learn the idea, then you do it.

First thing

Read SETUP.md and get the chamber working. Do that before week 2.

How each tool week works

Same shape every time:

1. Run the tool by hand, one command at a time, and look at what happens.
2. Once it works, save the commands into a run script in that week's folder.
3. From then on, ./run repeats it.

You build those scripts yourself. Nothing is handed to you finished.

Each week works inside its own folder. Week 9 reads ../week07-synthesis/post-synth.v. That is the whole dependency model.

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The structure of this program owes a lot to Cornell's ECE 6745 and Berkeley's EECS 151, both of which put students in front of real tools early and let the flow do the teaching.