Abstract:
Component Modelling Conventions and Standards

The presentation will be structured in two major parts, Coding Standards for VHDL and Models for Board-level Simulation. In the first part the following topics will be discussed:

• The need for coding standards
• Some available VHDL coding standards
• Some coding style examples and pitfalls

The second part will discuss component models for Board-Level Simulation. It will not be limited to VHDL, but cover general aspects and requirements for this type of models:

• Simulation performance
• Debug support in models
• Handling of unknown values
• Timing modelling

The course material will consist of:

• The ESA VHDL Modelling Guidelines (PostScript format, 465 k)
• VHDL Models for Board-level Simulation (PostScript format, 432 k)
• Using VHDL for Board-Level Simulation (PostScript format, 207 k)

Peter Sinander

Peter Sinander is leading the work at the Microelectronics and Technology section at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), the main technical centre of the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA is an organisation of 14 European member states with Canada as an associate member, with the charter to develop space applications for peaceful purposes.

The Microelectronics and Technology section deals with design of ASICs and ASSPs (i.e. ASICs to be used by several companies as a standard product), and ASIC design methodology including VHDL modelling. Projects include:

• Telemetry and Telecommand ASSPs implementing standard spacecraft communication protocols
• GPS (Global Positioning System) ASSP for attitude control and very high precision position determination
• Lossless Data Compression ASSP implementing the Rice algorithm
• Porting of ADSP21020 32-bit FP DSP processor to a radiation tolerant technology
• Various ASIC developments for spacecraft projects
• Studies and model development for VHDL Board-level simulation

For more information see the ESA Microelectronics page

Contact

Peter Sinander
Microelectronics and Technology section (WSM)
European Space Agency
European Space Research & Technology Centre
PO Box 299
2200 AG Noordwijk
The Netherlands

Phone: +31-71-565 33 67
Fax: +31-71-565 42 95
WWW: http://www.estec.esa.nl/wsmwww/
E-mail: psi@ws.estec.esa.nl