COMP3222/9222 2021 Practice Practical Exam Page 1 of 5
COMP3222/9222 2021 PRACTICE PRACTICAL EXAM PROBLEM
Instructions for the Final Practical exam:
How will the exam be conducted?
• The Final Practical exam will be held on the afternoon of Monday 29 November.
• The exam will be held at a specified time on WebCMS.
• There are 4 questions in total.
• The exam is worth 30 marks in total. The exam contributes 30% to your final
assessment in the course. You must score at least 40% of the available marks in this
exam in order to pass the course.
• The exam has a 140 minute time limit (consideration for 10 minutes reading time
and time to upload files with momentary glitches in connectivity are included in this
time allowance).
• All times stated for the exam are in Sydney time (AEDT = UTC+11).
What exam materials can be used?
• Make sure you have a quiet location with good internet connectivity where you can
work on the exam undisturbed for the full 140 minutes.
• No exam materials are provided. You will need paper and pens and a means of
scanning and uploading answers to some of the questions.
• You may use any offline resources, including your course notes, personal notes,
textbooks, and lab files.
• You are not permitted to access web pages or other internet resources, except for the
course and exam web pages
• You are not permitted to use code-synthesis tools such as GitHub Copilot
• Do not place your exam work in any location, including file sharing services such as
Dropbox or GitHub, accessible to any other person.
• You may not request help from any person or service apart from the Course
Coordinator, who will be available by email (o. .au) and on Teams.
• Even after you finish the exam, on the day of the exam do not communicate your exam
answers to anyone. Some students have extended time to complete the exam.
• Ensure during the exam no other person in your household can access your work.
• Your zpass should not be disclosed to any other person. If you have disclosed
your zpass, you should change it immediately.
• Deliberate violation of exam conditions will be referred to Student Integrity as
serious misconduct
No help is allowed during the exam
• You must not communicate with anyone while you are taking the exam.
• You are not permitted to use any online resources, e.g. searching for answers to
questions using the Internet.
• Failure to comply with the above, if detected, will result in disciplinary action.
• If you experience difficulties during the exam, or have a question about the exam,
contact the Course Coordinator by email (o. .au) or via Teams as
soon as possible.
mailto:o. .au
mailto:o. .au
COMP3222/9222 2021 Practice Practical Exam Page 2 of 5
Useful advice from UNSW on open book exams
https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/open-book-and-take-home-exams
Technical issues
If you experience a technical issue before or during the exam, you should follow these
instructions:
• Take screenshots of as many of the following as possible:
o error messages
o screen not loading
o timestamped speed tests
o power outage maps
o messages or information from your internet provider regarding the issues
experienced
• All screenshots must include the date and time the issue occurred.
• Contact the Course Coordinator by phone (+61 2 9385 7384) email
(o. .au) or via Teams immediately and advise of the issue.
• Submit a Special Consideration application immediately at the conclusion of your
assessment and upload your screenshots.
Academic misconduct & Plagiarism
• You must treat this exam as you would treat an in-person, supervised and
invigilated exam. Any evidence of academic misconduct will be treated seriously.
Student Declaration
You will complete a digital declaration prior to commencing the exam. By completing the
declaration you are declaring that:
• As with any task conducted through UNSW, I am aware that online assignments and
examinations require me to comply with the UNSW Student Code of Conduct
(https://student.unsw.edu.au/conduct).
• I have read and understood the University requirements in respect of student
academic misconduct outlined in the Student Code of Conduct
(https://student.unsw.edu.au/conduct) and Annexure 1 of the Student Misconduct
Procedures
(https://www.gs.unsw.edu.au/policy/documents/studentmisconductprocedures.pdf)
• It represents my own work and that I did not give or receive assistance in any way that
would violate the UNSW Student Code of Conduct
(https://student.unsw.edu.au/conduct),
• I have taken proper and reasonable care to prevent this work from being copied by
another student
• I understand the following actions, among others, constitute Academic Misconduct:
o Allowing others to complete an online task in my place, either in whole or in
part.
o Taking or sharing screenshots of the assessment task or my responses
unless expressly permitted by UNSW.
https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/open-book-and-take-home-exams
mailto:o. .au
https://student.unsw.edu.au/conduct
https://student.unsw.edu.au/conduct
https://www.gs.unsw.edu.au/policy/documents/studentmisconductprocedures.pdf
https://student.unsw.edu.au/conduct
COMP3222/9222 2021 Practice Practical Exam Page 3 of 5
o Otherwise duplicating or distributing the assessment task in whole or in
part.
o Communicating any assessment content, question or topic to any person
prior, during or following the assessment unless expressly permitted by
UNSW.
o Providing or seeking assistance from unauthorised information sources
including, but not limited to, the Internet, any programs, chat servers, web
services, or contact with any external parties to communicate, collude or get
assistance in answering examination questions either prior to or during an
online exam session.
• I understand any breach of the above terms and conditions may result in university
disciplinary action.
Special consideration
• This exam is covered by UNSW’s Fit-to-Sit policy. That means that by sitting this exam,
you are declaring yourself well enough to do so. You will be unable to apply for special
consideration after the exam for circumstances affecting you before it began. If you
have questions, or you feel unable to complete the exam, contact the Course
Coordinator by phone (+61 2 9385 7384) email (o. .au) or via Teams
mailto:o. .au
COMP3222/9222 2021 Practice Practical Exam Page 4 of 5
COMP3222/9222 Practice Problem Specification
Given an 8-bit number A, design and implement a circuit that determines whether A is
divisible by 3 or not.
Your circuit should be connected to the components of the DE0/DE1 board as illustrated
below:
Your circuit should operate as follows:
• When KEY0 = Resetn is pushed, the Div3 and Done outputs should be deasserted and
the circuit placed into a state in which it waits for the operator to assert the start signal
s via switch SW9.
• The operator loads an 8-bit number A by setting switches SW7–SW0. Whatever
number is set will be loaded on rising clock edges while s is deasserted. The clk is
controlled by push button KEY1.
• When s is asserted, the circuit determines whether A is divisible by 3. One way of doing
so is to repeatedly subtract 3 from A until the amount remaining is less than 3. If the
amount remaining is 0, then A is divisible by 3, otherwise it is not.
• When the calculation is finished, the Done signal connected to LEDG8 on the DE0 board
and LEDR8 on the DE1 board is to be asserted. If A is divisible by 3, the Div3 output
signal connected to LEDG9 on the DE0 board and LEDR9 on the DE1 board should also
be asserted.
• The Done (and Div3) signal remains asserted until the operator deasserts s. This should
cause the circuit to be placed into the initial reset state again.
• Output R, connected to LEDG7–LEDG0 on the DE0 board and LEDR7–LEDR0 on the DE1
board, is used to show the amount of A remaining before, during and after the
calculation.
The timing diagram for four calculations is illustrated below:
A
s
Resetn
clk
Done
Div3
R
8
SW7 – SW0
SW9
KEY0
KEY1
8 DE0: LEDG7 – LEDG0
DE1: LEDR7 – LEDR0
DE0: LEDG8
DE1: LEDR8
DE0: LEDG9
DE1: LEDR9
divby3
circuit
COMP3222/9222 2021 Practice Practical Exam Page 5 of 5
You are provided with a Quartus Project Archive with pin assignments that map the circuit to
the board you are using. The archives are named divby3-DEn-exam.qar, whereby you
should use the archive named for the board you are using n = 0 for DE0 and n = 1 for DE1. The
archive contains the outline of the top-level design entity for this problem, called divby3. (To
facilitate testing, do not modify the top-level ENTITY description for divby3.) The archive
contains the waveform file used to generate the timing diagram above. The archive also
includes a bitstream for the working circuit, named divby3-soln.sof, in the
output_files subdirectory.
Please ensure you download and use the correct archive for the board you are using!
Submission
You are required to submit:
1. [5 marks] A neat & legible listing of the pseudocode for this problem and a neat & legible
sketch of your initial ASM chart for your design. Please take care with Mealy & Moore
type outputs. Upload a SINGLE PDF, JPG or PNG format file containing your answer using
the WebCMS submission tab for Part 1. of the exam.
2. [4 marks] A neat & legible sketch of the datapath for your design. The sketch MUST
indicate the name of all signals as used in your VHDL description and correspond with the
names used in your refined ASM chart of 3. Your datapath sketch MUST indicate the
number of bits used for each signal and the size of all components. Upload a SINGLE PDF,
JPG or PNG format file containing your answer using the WebCMS submission tab for Part
2. of the exam.
3. [3 marks] A neat & legible sketch of a refined copy of your ASM chart from 1. This
diagram MUST use the same signal names and state names as used in your VHDL
description and MUST indicate the state transitions and outputs of the control path.
Upload a SINGLE PDF, JPG or PNG format file containing your answer using the WebCMS
submission tab for Part 3. of the exam.
4. [18 marks] A Quartus Project Archive of your completed design. To facilitate testing, do
not modify the top-level ENTITY description for divby3. Upload a SINGLE QAR format
file containing your answer using the WebCMS submission tab for Part 4. of the exam.
Your solution will be marked according to the following scheme:
a. [15 marks] Still testing and debugging VHDL code – we will assess the
completeness and correctness of your description
b. [2 marks] Simulation complete – make sure we have your waveform file in the
directory as we will check your simulation progress
c. [1 marks] Implementation complete – we will test your design on the board
Disclaimer
This Practice Exam is representative of the type of problem, environment, and materials
permitted during the COMP3222/9222 Practical Exam. The actual exam may contain
substantially different instructions, including problem specification, submission
requirements, and marking scheme.
COMP3222/9222 2021 PRACTICE PRACTICAL EXAM PROBLEM
How will the exam be conducted?
What exam materials can be used?
No help is allowed during the exam
Useful advice from UNSW on open book exams
Technical issues
Academic misconduct & Plagiarism
Student Declaration
Special consideration