DESIGN REVIEWS 18-545: ADVANCED DIGITAL DESIGN PROJECT FALL 2016 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
DESIGN REVIEWS 18-545: ADVANCED DIGITAL DESIGN PROJECT FALL 2016 BRANDON LUCIA Announcements Design Review is next Monday (17 Oct) Design Review Demo is following Wednesday (19 Oct) All teams should have completed all 3 labs at this point 2
18-545: ADVANCED DIGITAL DESIGN PROJECT FALL 2016 BRANDON LUCIA
18-545: FALL 2016
Design Review is next Monday (17 Oct) Design Review Demo is following Wednesday (19 Oct) All teams should have completed all 3 labs at this point
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18-545: FALL 2016
Logistics In class 15 minute presentation No more than 20 slides Given by only 1 group member
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18-545: FALL 2016
Content What does your design look like? Promise vs. Delivery so far Unexpected challenges Revised schedule (Gantt chart), highlight changes Questions, solicitations for feedback or help Hardware needs?
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18-545: FALL 2016
Logistics In lab on the following lesson Demo what you have working / limping so far All group members should attend Content One major sub-system working, others in progress
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18-545: FALL 2016
Logistics Submit PDF to Blackboard by Wednesday 10/19, 9:30am No length requirement (less than 5 pages, probably means trouble) Content Full design specification Software / hardware partition Interfaces definitions Detailed system block diagram Schedule / Management decisions Make it good -- your classmates will read it All major design decision should have been made
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18-545: FALL 2016
Design reviews Presentation tips Planning Preparation Slides
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18-545: FALL 2016
Present your design for critique & improvement What? Basics of the design (architecture, clocking, circuits) Preliminary results, best guess performance Anything special or weird about the design Weak points Remaining unanswered questions When? Late enough: after decisions are made Early enough: time to change the design Multiple design reviews are often good
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18-545: FALL 2016
Send review materials to reviewers early Preparing for a review is often productive Everyone should understand design goals Everyone should understand review goals
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18-545: FALL 2016
Know your audience Take meticulous notes All issues and questions logged Stay on topic Address tangents off-line Have only one conversation Follow through Action items assigned Issue is not closed until originator signs-off
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No ego trips Flaws in the design, not the designer Defensive attitude is unproductive Accept valid criticism Remember: reviews improve design (It’s not punishment)
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No ego trips No one cares if you would’ve done it better Be constructive, don’t complain Pay attention Empathy: your work will soon be reviewed
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18-545: FALL 2016
We do design reviews all the time Should adhere to a methodology MIL-STD 1521b, for instance Create productive design review culture
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18-545: FALL 2016
Design reviews Presentation tips Planning Preparation Slides
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What is the point of your talk? Know your audience level (Experts? Clueless?) Construct a narrative Requires structure: no “core dump” Short talks are harder than long ones
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Tell the audience what you’ll tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you just told them Plan for time Time per slide is highly variable Speed is not a good thing Go too fast lose the audience Running out of time, dynamically schedule
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Give practice talks Practice audiences Don’t recite verbatim Memorizing the first slide is OK Know your talk 18
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Equipment BYODongle (YOFGYDO) Back-up versions of talk: Dropbox, email Room Location & scheduling Lighting, shades, etc. Arrangement of tables, chairs, etc. Food (plus a drink for speaker)
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18-545: FALL 2016
Too little substance is bad
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Nothing irrelevant on the slide Don’t read your slides Have a useful informative slide title Use slide numbers Visual balance is good
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Use a big enough font for all text (24 pt. is the minimum) Vast majority of bullets should be one line only Can play abbreviation tricks (e.g., &, w/, b/c, btw, etc.) Resizing the text box can get you that little needed extra space Use consistent formatting Capitalization, font, bold/italic, etc. No period at the end of a bullet. Auto-fit is your friend ➙ don’t abuse your friends
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Using color can help audience focus on key points Over-use will bewilder audience Yellow doesn’t show-up well Be consistent in color use Choose a palette (and a theme) before building your first slide Online palette generators are quite good
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Excel plots are UGLY Always label your axes Almost always have units Use color to differentiate lines Use the right axes range / type At some point in your life, read Tufte
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0.0000 1000.0000 2000.0000 3000.0000 4000.0000 550 1100 1650 2200 Time (ms) Image SideComputation Time
CUDA CPU (Matlab) 18-545: FALL 2016
Snap-to-grid is your friend Use a thick line width and a big font Ellipses are good . . . Uber-diagram is bad Break confusing diagrams up or do blow-ups Can split slide vertically or horizontally In source drawings, use a transparent background
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A good animation can bring your point to life Too much can be distracting Also difficult to control if you have to backtrack
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Client Local NS NS0 NS1 NS2 ? ? Answer ? Answer ? Answer Answer
18-545: FALL 2016
Design Review next week Remember your Monday Status Reports! Read Debugging
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