Sun Microsystems awarded ECE Research Fellow Mark McDermott a $20K award for Best University Level Computer Architecture and/or VLSI Course. McDermott received the prize for EE 382M-8, VLSI II.

The graduate-level course brings the real world into the classroom. Experienced IC designers from local industry co-developed and co-teach the course. The class concentrates on how to do the early design planning of a microprocessor or SOC using a high level behavioral or RTL model and how to do the circuit feasibility analysis of the critical speed paths of the microprocessor or SOC based on the results of the early design planning. The 40+ students use open source SPARC-T1 for a complex class design project.

UT is a Sun OpenSPARC Center of Excellence.