Ghala’s Design Notebook: Processor Design VIP
Week1: 01/20/26 - 01/25/26
- Had two meeting with the leadership team.
- Discussed: Gradebook, syllabus, first meeting of the semester, goals for the VIP, meeting times, … etc.
- Getting to know what my role as part of the management team entails and the expectations.
Discussion: looking forward for this semester and the goals we’re going to achieve.
Week2: 01/26/26 - 02/01/26
- Did small improvements on the Discord server.
- Created a gradebook for the VIP.
- Had our first all members meeting for the semester.
- Discussed what the returning members are expected to do with Darren and the other returning members.
Discussion: I already have done 1-4 Onboarding labs last semster but I found 3-4 Labs to be a little confusing so I went over them again and tried to understand them better. I haven’t created new files or folders but intend to create a folder specified for the onboarding labs once I start with Lab 5.
Last Semester’s Processor-Design VIP Project repository - folders: Lab1_Ghala, Lab2_Ghala, Lab3_Ghala, Lab4_Ghala
Week3: 02/02/26 - 02/08/26
- Read the papers written by previous ProcDesign members to understand the architecture
- Reviewed couple of online resources related to RISC-V design.
Discussion: I understand most of the material in the papers and the RTL code in nyu-core but don’t fully understand the C++ portion.
Week4: 02/09/26 - 02/15/26
- Completed lab 5.
- Had meeting with the leadership team.
ProcDesign Project repository - New folder: lab-5
Discussion: In lab 5 there isn’t much to do so as an exercise for myself I created a simple working rtl design along with a C++ tb using Verilator.
Week5: 02/16/26 - 02/22/26
- Completed Onboarding labs.
Discussion: Lab 7 discusses the subteams within the VIP. I am interested in the Core subteam, but open to help in other subteams in addition to the documentation. Our next step could be to test if the full system (Core, AMBA interconnect, and memory) can run together. In this process we would be able to identify problems we face and document the whole process.
Week6: 02/23/26 - 03/01/26
- Weekly update of the gradebook.
Discussion: Up to date with all assigned work.
Week7: 03/02/26 - 03/08/26
- Weekly leadership meeting.
- Assigned to lead the core subteam along with Noah.
- Weekly update of the gradebook.
Discussion: I’m hoping now since I will be more involved in the project this would force me to understand the main project more.
Week8: 03/09/26 - 03/15/26
- Weekly update of the gradebook.
Discussion: This week I was busy with midterms so I haven’t been able to do much
Week9: 03/16/26 - 03/22/26
- Spring Break
Week10: 03/23/26 - 03/29/26
- Had meetings with leadership about the future of the VIP
- Had meeting with Professor Dey
- Finalized midterm grades
Week11: 03/30/26 - 04/05/26
- Meeting with leadership about final project.
- Had an all team meeting.
- Weekly update of the gradebook.
Discussion: Darren suggested we research more about how to fabricate using MPW and choose a design to implement. I like this idea and maybe we can start with a simple project to familiarize ourselves with the MPW process.