FPG-210 · FPGA & Acceleration · Advanced
DSP on FPGA: NCO, CIC & FIR — full syllabus
The signal processing building blocks implemented in hardware, with real fixed-point analysis.
Duration3 full days in person · 6 half-days online
Cohortmax 14 in person · 20 online
Pricefrom SAR 9,000 in person · local pricing per city
Delivery35% principles · 20% guided investigation · 45% engineering studio
Who this course is for
Engineers implementing signal processing in FPGA fabric — SDR, instrumentation or control — who need the standard blocks built right, with the fixed-point analysis to prove it.
Prerequisites
- FPG-101 or equivalent RTL skills; FPG-110 helpful
- Basic DSP: sampling, filtering, frequency response
- Comfort with binary arithmetic — we build fixed-point rigor on top
Course outline
Day 1 — Fixed point and oscillators
- Q formats, scaling, saturation and rounding: choosing word lengths deliberately
- Quantisation noise and how error propagates through arithmetic
- Numerically controlled oscillators: phase accumulators and LUT-based sine generation
- Phase truncation, spurs, and what they cost in spectral purity
- Mapping arithmetic onto DSP slices efficiently
Day 2 — CIC and FIR filters
- CIC filters: integrator/comb structure, decimation and the register-growth math
- Droop compensation, and when a CIC alone is enough
- FIR design: coefficients, symmetry exploitation, transposed vs direct forms
- Resource sharing and folding for sample-rate vs clock-rate headroom
- Polyphase decomposition for decimation and interpolation
Day 3 — Architectures and proof
- Digital down-conversion: NCO, mixer, CIC/FIR chain as one architecture
- Lock-in detection: phase-sensitive detection in fixed point
- Golden-model verification: bit-true comparison against a floating reference
- Overflow analysis and worst-case bounds, stated and tested
- Timing and resource closure on the complete chain
Hands-on labs
- Lab: Implement an NCO with a phase accumulator and LUT; measure its output spectrum and identify the spur sources
- Lab: Build a CIC decimator, observe the droop, add a compensation filter, and verify register growth matches your analysis
- Lab: Implement a symmetric FIR exploiting coefficient symmetry and compare resource use against the naive direct form
- Lab: Quantize a floating filter design to fixed point; produce error histograms against golden vectors and set word lengths from a stated budget
- Lab: Assemble a full DDC chain (NCO, mixer, CIC, FIR) and verify it bit-true against the reference model
Capstone project
Build a complete digital down-conversion and lock-in detection chain in RTL — NCO, mixer, CIC decimator, compensating FIR — with a fixed-point design document at its core: Q-format choices with range and error budgets, golden-model test vectors, a stated worst-case overflow analysis, bit-true RTL verification results, and synthesis, timing and resource reports from the ZCU104 target.
What you leave with
- Production NCO, CIC and FIR blocks you built and can defend numerically
- A fixed-point design method: Q formats, error budgets, overflow bounds
- Golden-model verification habits: every numerical claim tied to vectors
- DSP-slice mapping and symmetry/resource-sharing trade-off judgment
- A DDC and lock-in architecture template for SDR and instrumentation work
Upcoming dates
| Dates | Where | Seats | Early bird | Regular | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Nov – 3 Nov 20263 full days | RiyadhIn person · KAFD Conference Centre | 6 of 14 | — | SAR 9,000 | |
| 8 Nov – 10 Nov 20263 full days | Kuwait CityIn person · Al Hamra Tower | 11 of 14 | KWD 670until 9 Oct | ||
| 15 Nov – 17 Nov 20263 full days | MuscatIn person · Knowledge Oasis Muscat | 6 of 14 | OMR 830until 16 Oct | ||
| 15 Nov – 22 Nov 20266 half-days | Gulf bandLive online · 09:00–13:00 GMT+3 | 4 of 20 | US$1,580until 16 Oct | ||
| 16 Nov – 18 Nov 20263 full days | OttawaIn person · Kanata North Tech Park | 11 of 14 | CAD 2,930until 17 Oct | ||
| 23 Nov – 25 Nov 20263 full days | TorontoIn person · MaRS Discovery District | 6 of 14 | CAD 2,930until 24 Oct | ||
| 23 Nov – 30 Nov 20266 half-days | Europe bandLive online · 09:00–13:00 CET | 9 of 20 | US$1,580until 24 Oct | ||
| 23 Nov – 30 Nov 20266 half-days | Americas bandLive online · 13:00–17:00 ET | 14 of 20 | US$1,580until 24 Oct | ||
| 30 Nov – 2 Dec 20263 full days | LondonIn person · Shoreditch Works | 11 of 14 | GBP 1,680until 31 Oct | ||
| 30 Nov – 2 Dec 20263 full days | BerlinIn person · Factory Görlitzer Park | 6 of 14 | EUR 1,990until 31 Oct |
Book a seat, or bring this course to your team
Seats can be reserved online; private delivery runs on-site or live online, adapted to your stack.
Questions about fit or prerequisites? Email hello@kernelsystems.academy. To save this syllabus, print this page to PDF from your browser.