Textbook by Dr. David Greaves

Discover the fundamentals and latest developments in modern SoC design using Arm Cortex-A technology as the demonstrator platform.

The aim of this textbook is to expose aspiring and practising SoC designers to the fundamentals and latest developments in SoC design and technologies using examples of Arm Cortex-A technology and related IP blocks and interfaces. The entire SoC design process is discussed in detail, from memory and interconnects through to validation, fabrication and production. A particular highlight of this textbook is the focus on energy efficient SoC design, and the extensive supplementary materials which include a SystemC model of a Zynq chip.

This textbook is targetted at final year undergraduate students, master students or engineers in the field looking to update their knowledge. It is assumed that readers will have a pre-existing understanding of RTL, Assembly Language and Operating Systems.

For those readers looking for a entry-level introduction to SoC design, we recommend our Fundamentals of System-on-Chip Design on Arm Cortex-M Microcontrollers textbook.

1. Introduction to System-on-Chip

2. Processors, Memory and IP Blocks

3. SoC Interconnect

4. System Design Considerations

5. Electronic System-Level Modelling

6. Architectural Design Exploration

7. Formal Methods and Assertion-based Design

8. Fabrication and Production

9. Putting Everything Together

You are free to fork, clone or download this book in PDF format for personal, non-commercial use only. You may reprint or republish portions of the text for non-commercial, educational or research purposes but only if there is an attribution to Arm Education. This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein). Nothing in this license grants you any right to modify the whole, or portions of, this book.

Arm is committed to making the language we use inclusive, meaningful, and respectful. Our goal is to remove and replace non-inclusive language from our vocabulary to reflect our values and represent our global ecosystem.

Arm is working actively with our partners, standards bodies, and the wider ecosystem to adopt a consistent approach to the use of inclusive language and to eradicate and replace offensive terms. We recognise that this will take time. This book may contain references to non-inclusive language; it will be updated with newer terms as those terms are agreed and ratified with the wider community.

Contact us at [email protected] with questions or comments about this course. You can also report non-inclusive and offensive terminology usage in Arm content at [email protected].