====== Semiconductor Overview ======

This page describes some terms and topics that are used in the semiconductor industry. This includes companies such as ARM, AMD and Intel.

===== Terms =====

  * **HDL** - (Hardware Description Language) refers to any languages that describe hardware
  * **RTL** - (Register Transistor Level) refers to the level of abstraction that you're writing in. Most hardware is written in RTL, meaning you describe things at the register level (flip flops, latches, etc). 
  * **Emulation** - Emulation enables one computer system to behave like another. For example, you can build an emulator that runs gamebox games. 
  * **Verification** - Answers the question: did we design it according to the specification? 
  * **Validation** - Answers the question: does it work correctly? Does it meet the needs of the customer or end user?


**Further reading**

[1] [[ http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1584617/simulator-or-emulator-what-is-the-difference | Difference between simulation and emulation]]\\
[2] [[ http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/69022/rtl-vs-hdl-whats-the-difference | RTL vs HDL ]] \\
[3] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_on_a_chip | System on a chip (SoC) ]] 


**Other worthwhile resources**

[[ http://www.cadence.com/products/sd/palladium_xp_series/pages/default.aspx | Cadence Palladium XP Series  ]] - provides some good high level explainations \\
[[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_emulation | hardware emulation wiki page ]]

===== Public Resources =====

[[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGESA | AGESA ]] \\
[[ https://events.ccc.de/congress/2014/Fahrplan/system/attachments/2503/original/ccc-final.pdf | AGESA Presentation ]] \\
[[ https://web.archive.org/web/20140325040416/http://community.amd.com/community/amd-blogs/amd-business/blog/2011/02/28/technical-details-on-amd-s-coreboot-source-code-release | AMD Coreboot Release ]] \\
[[ http://www.hotchips.org/wp-content/uploads/hc_archives/hc16/2_Mon/15_HC16_Sess4_Pres1_bw.pdf | SimNow Presentation ]]
===== Learning =====

Note: this section is still under development.

RTL resources: 

http://iverilog.icarus.com/
http://www.clifford.at/icestorm/


===== PC Emulators =====

http://wiki.qemu.org/Main_Page\\
http://wiki.osdev.org/Bochs