An evolution towards system-on-chip oriented curriculum

Systems on chip (SoCs) as well as network on chip (NoCs) are becoming pervasive technologies that are used at a wide scale in of computer, communications and consumer electronics applications. The pervasiveness and high performance of such devices places demands and challenges on educating students on ECE (electrical and computer engineering) programs to be able to design SoCs and incorporate them in various systems. An evolving curriculum that addresses the various hardware and software knowledge and skills will help meet the demand for designers of SoC devices. This paper proposes this evolving curriculum that spans the undergraduate as well as the graduate levels. Some aspects of the curriculum have been successfully implemented. A description of those courses that have been implemented as well as those planned is covered in the paper.