USC VLSI courses and reference books

First of all let me thank our seniors Hariharan Subramanian and Sarath Chandra Grandhi for all their inputs :) Special thanks to Hariharan for giving us a visual tour of USC! :)

So let's get started!

In USC we have 3 course options
a)Computer Architecture
b)Digital
c)Analog
We can pick up any 2 or a combination of all 3 as per our interests.

VLSI courses:

1) EE457 -Computer Systems Organization (3Credits)

 This is a very good course and a heavy course and is a must for the ones who are interested in digital. Not so important if you are going into analog. This course will help us develop a vlsi-way of thinking. This course is known for it's assignments..But at the end of the day it's worth it!

Contents:
Register transfer level machine organization; MPIS instruction set architecture; performance; computer arithmetic; organization and detailed implementation of non-pipelined and pipelined processors; cache and virtual memory. Not available for graduate credit to computer science majors. Prerequisite: EE 357.


Course Link: Click here for EE 457L Course Outline


Professors:
a)Gandhi Puvvada: Prof Gandhi Puvvada's Profile Page
   99% of the classes are taken by him. Remember Gandhi Puvvada  = God :) Right Hariharan? :)

b)Kai Hwang - Prof Kai Hwang's Profile Page
   I guess he takes only for the ones who join in Spring.


Text Books:
Most of them refer Puvvada's notes which we can get for $10 at the USC Bookstore. However,
Required Text Book: David Patterson and John Hennessy, Computer Organization and Design, 4th Edition.
EE457 Lab Manual is available at the USC Book Store


2) EE477L - MOS VLSI Circuit Design (4Credits)


This is a pre-req for EE577(a). If you had a decent cmos vlsi course in your undergrad then you must try to clear the placement test of this course. But if you want to strengthen your fundamentals and also get a hold of the Cadence tool then this is for you.

Contents:
Analysis and design of digital MOS VLSI circuits including area, delay and power minimization. 
Laboratory assignments including design, layout, extraction, simulation and automatic synthesis. Prerequisite: EE 328L or EE 338.
Click here to go to the class website


Course Link: Click here for EE 477L Course Outline


Professors:
a)Alice Parker: Prof Alice Parker's Profile Page
   She has been in the university since the late 60's/early 70's. She explains the concepts very slowly and goes into it with more understanding. So might cover lesser number of topics, but would have laid a very strong basic foundation


b)Shahin Nazarian: Prof Shahin Nazarian's Profile Page
Shahin is a good professor and he covers a lot. He puts in stuff from 577a, 577b into 477 which might be an overdose of the VLSI drug for a few of them :) But it's all for our own good


Text Books:

Recommended text book:
CMOS Digital Integrated Circuits, 3rd edition, Kang and Leblebici, McGraw-Hill


Other References:
a) Integrated Circuits: A Design Perspective, Jan Rabaey, Prentice Hall (more challenging)
b) Digital Integrated Circuit Design, Martin, Oxford.
c) CMOS VLSI Design: A Circuits and Systems Perspective, Neil Weste and David Harris  third edition, Addison Wesley


3) EE479L -Analog & Non-Linear Integrated Circuit Design
    (3Credits)


Interested in Analog but have a poor analog background? Then this is for you. This course is a subset of EE448 which is the father of all analog courses :)

Contents:
Analysis and design techniques for CMOS analog and non-linear integrated circuits. Frequency and noise characteristics of broadband amplifiers. Feedback, oscillators, and phase-locked loops. Prerequisite: EE 348L.

Course Link: Click here for EE 479 Course Outline


Professors:
Ali Zadeh : Profile Link not found

Office: PHE 532, ali.zadeh@yahoo.com

He is a part-time faculty and has been in the industry for more than 30yrs.


Text Books:

Required Text Book:

 P. R. Gray, P. J. Hurst, S. H. Lewis, & R.G. Meyer, Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits,

5-th Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 2009.

Reference Text Books:

a) R. Jacob Baker, CMOS Circuit Design, Layout, and Simulation, 2nd Edition, IEEE Press, 2005.

b) P. E. Allen & D. R. Holberg, CMOS Analog Circuit Design, 2nd Ed, Oxford University press, 2002.

c) B. Razavi, Design of Analog CMOS Integrated Circuits, McGraw Hill, 2001.

d) D. A. Johns & K. Martin, Analog Integrated Circuit Design, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1997

4) EE448: Communication Electronics (4Credits)

448 is very difficult when compared to 479. 479 is a very small subset of 448. If you have a good analog background in your undergrad then u can take this directly. But in general ppl say that u can take 479,then 536a and get an A in 536a and then take 448 so that it will be relatively easier for you to manage 448.
However we have one more option as quoted by our senior Sarath Chandra Grandhi who is totally into Analog.
"You can take EE448L in sem1. But you will have a good course load and you wil learn a lot in it. You can take 477L and 448L in sem1 so that you can save RCL. Both are 4 credit courses. Actually many seniors told me that hashemi course is tough and you have to be prepared for the worst case(C+) . But when 2 of my frnds took in sem1 I came to know tat he gave 3A, 1A-,14 B+, 1B, 1C+. So if you work hard you will definitely get a B+ .If you get a B+ in his course it means you did well and learnt a lot. It actually helps u get a good grade in 536a and also for summer intern if you are interested in analog/RF"

Contents:
Analysis, design, and experimental evaluation of transistor-level communication circuits and micro-systems. Transmission lines, impedance matching, noise, distortion, tuned amplifiers, mixers, oscillators, phase-locked loops.Prerequisite: EE 348L


Course Link: Click here for EE448 Course Outline.


Professors:
Hossein Hashemi : Prof Hashemi's Profile Page
God of RF and if you see him in class it means you have chosen the toughest of the subjects :)


Text Books:

Recommended Text Book: B. Razavi, Design of Analog CMOS Integrated Circuits, McGraw Hill, 1 Edition,2000.


Supplementary Texts:
a)Thomas H. Lee, The Design of CMOS Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits
b)Kenneth K. Clarke and Donald R. Hess, Communication Circuits: Analysis and Design
c)David B. Rutledge, The Electronics of Radio


5) EE577(a) -VLSI System Design I (3Credits)

It is a must for all the digital engineers. If you are totally into analog and RF and you do not want any digital course then you need not take this.

Contents:
 Integrated circuit fabrication; circuit simulation; basic device physics; simple device layout; structured chip design; timing; project chip; MOS logic; system design silicon compilers. Prerequisite: EE 477

Course Link: Click here for EE577(a) Course Outline


Professors:


a) Sandeep K. Gupta : Prof Sandeep Gupta's Profile Page

"Sandeep Gupta was always incharge of this course. But off-late there are rumors that this fall he wouldn't be teaching..If not, u have certain VLSI faculty who would be guiding you guys for this course: Pedram, Draper..." as quoted by a senior.


News Update: Prof Gupta would be taking 577(a) this time since Prof Pedram is going on a sabbatical. 

Massoud Pedram - Prof Massoud Pedram's Profile Page

Jeffrey Draper      - Prof Jeffrey Draper's Profile Page

Text Books:

Main Text Book: 

CMOS VLSI Design: A Circuits and Systems Perspective, N. Weste and D. Harris, Addison-Wesley, Third Edition, 2005

Recommended Readings:

a)CMOS Digital Integrated Circuits, S. M. Kang and Y. Leblebici, McGraw Hill, Third Edition, 2003. 
(EE477L textbook.)

b)Logical Effort: Designing Fast CMOS Circuits, I. Sutherland, B. Sproull and D. Harris, Morgan 
Kaufman.
c)Skew-Tolerant Circuit Design, D. Harris, Morgan Kaufman.


6) EE577(b) -VLSI System Design II (3Credits)


This is another must have course for digital Engineers. EE577(a) is it's co-requisite..So without taking 577(a) you cant take this up..Order there by would be EE477-->EE577(a)-->EE577(b). However u can take up both these advanced courses in the same sem.


Contents:
VLSI design project; chip level design issues: power and clock distribution, packaging, I/O; design techniques; testability; chip fabrication and test. Prerequisite: EE 477, Co-Requisite -EE577(a)


Course Link: Click here for EE577(b) Course Outline


Professors:
a) Shahin Nazarian:  Prof Shahin Nazarian's Profile Page
Off-late this course is taken by only Prof Shahin Nazarian who is an Alumni of USC.


Text Books: To be updated 

7) EE536(a) - MixedSignal Integrated Circuit Design I(3Credits)

Must-have for analog . 536a is like an extended 479 but with more emphasis on feedback circuits. Analog courses aren’t as easy as digital. That’s why many people prefer digital over analog in order to save their gpa. So it is totally upto you to decide on it. 


Contents:
MOSFET operation and models; voltage references and biasing; elementary amplifier configurations; design techniques for high-speed operational amplifiers, comparators and transconductors; compensation methods.Prerequisite: EE 479

Course Link: Click here for EE536(a) Course Outline


Professors:
a) John Choma - Prof John Choma's Profile Page
Dig into his profile page and you will find a whole lot of resources/materials.
"John Choma he was sick a yr back and at that time Prof Moloudi was incharge of this subject. But now Moloudi    has left USC. So I guess Prof Choma would continue"


Text Books:

Main Text Book:

J. Choma and W-K. Chen,  Feedback Networks: Theory and Circuit Applications.  Singapore: World Scientific Press, 2007 

Recommended Books: 

There are just around 40-50 books :o :) For more info go through the EE 536(a) course outline 

8) EE536(b)-MixedSignal Integrated Circuit Design II

    (3Credits)

"Another must have for analog engineers.In 536b you will be building an industry standard ADC. (Believe me, it’s a project worth putting on your resume)."- as quoted by a senior

Contents:

Non-linear integrated circuits, data-converter architectures and implementations, comprehensive design project.

Course Link: Click here for EE536(b) Course Outline

Professors:


a) Vincent Ng : Profile link not found
    Incharge of EE536(b) Fall.


b) Mike Chen - Prof Mike Chen's Profile Page
  He was incharge of EE536(b) last spring. He has recently joined USC and has a PhD from UCB,.He then worked in industry for 4yrs. Check his profile page for more info


Text Books: 
People usually refer class notes. However you can find a list of reference text books in the course outline link


9) EE560 - Digital System Design :Tools&Techniques(3credits)


"EE560 is offered only in summer and is Prof.Puvvada’s favorite course. Very heavy and intensive course
that you cannot manage it along with any other course. It is twice as heavy as 457. (and people complain
that 457 has loads of assignments!) But it is worth taking it if you want to be a hardware engineer in
digital. This course has special selection criteria.
Please check this link to know more about the course: Click here to check the Selection Criteria

Only students who were among the upper half of the “A” graders in their EE457 course are generally considered for this class.


Contents:
ASIC design, FPGAs, VHDL, verilog, test benches, simulation, synthesis, timing analysis, post-synthesis simulation, FIFOs, handshaking, memory interface, PCI bus protocol, CAD tools, design lab exercises. Prerequisite: EE 457x, EE 454L; recommended preparation: familiarity with CAD tools.


Course Link: Click here for EE560 Course Outline

Professors:
a)Gandhi Puvvada: Prof Gandhi Puvvada's Profile Page
No one else other than Gandhi Puvvada can take this course :) Remember Puvvada = God! :)


Text Books:
Most of them refer Puvvada's notes which is available at the USC book store for $10-15
Other Textbooks and Course readers: 

a) The Designer’s Guide to VHDL by Peter J. Ashenden (optional)
b) Esperan Quick Reference guides for VHDL and Verilog (Required)
    EE-Systems department proposes to procure these for the students
    so that the students can buy them at cost (about $25 per guide)
c) Course readers: Class notes and lab manual
    (Distributed progressively in class, $15 to cover photocopying costs)







Work in Progress come back later for more details :)