Hi,

I'm very interested in starting to learn about fpgas. I tried finding
if there was anything about it at local colleges, but it seems a
little to specialised! I'm quite adept at software engineering (C++/
Java etc...), but I haven't done any assembly, or worked very close
with any hardware in any sense (except for PC maintenance ;)

I've tried to do some rough research so that I would have some idea
before I asked questions, and it seems that there are two main
languages used (programming fpgas seems more popular than schematics
from what I've seen), Verilog and VHDL. From what I've seen from the
two languages, I think I'd prefer Verilog, but I can't work out if to
use Verilog 2005 and SystemVerilog? Is this again a matter of
perference or are there advantages and disadvantages to each? It seems
SystemVerilog has a few more features that aren't in Verilog, giving
it an edge over Verilog. If this is the case then perhaps
SystemVerilog is the best thing?

But it's here where things just disappear for me! I'm struggling with
where go to after this? I'm expecting a very steep learning curve, but
perhaps some resource (maybe a very good book on the subject for
complete newbies) giving some direction from here would be nice.

Thanks! :)

A book:
(one of very many, this one is used by UC Berkeley)
R. H. Katz, Contemporary Logic Design, Addison Wesley Publishing
Company, Reading, MA, 1993.

A source of stuff that universities and colleges actually use so you may
find their course materials on line and follow along)

http://www.digilentinc.com

Such as: (one of hundreds)

http://www.ece.unm.edu/vhdl/documents/d2sb_RM.pdf

Austin

And,

I forgot to mention that the cost of the Digilent (Spartan series) pcb's
is designed to be like the cost of a textbook (but re-usable), so every
student can afford one, and take their pcb through more than just one
class (logic design, processor architectures, interfacing, etc...)

Austin

b...@googlemail.com wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm very interested in starting to learn about fpgas. I tried finding
...
> But it's here where things just disappear for me! I'm struggling with
> where go to after this? I'm expecting a very steep learning curve, but
> perhaps some resource (maybe a very good book on the subject for
> complete newbies) giving some direction from here would be nice.

The following site shows how to use Verilog with lots of simple but
instructive examples. Additionally there are references to short and
efficient verilog and vhdl courses on the net:

http://www.fpga4fun.com/

A very good short introduction to Verilog is (in my opinion):

Introduction to Verilog, Peter M. Nyasulu

www.doe.carleton.ca/~shams/97350/PetervrlK.pdf

Using the two references above I was able to complete some small designs
(4x7 Segment LED, PS/2 Keyboard reader, VGA with text-output) in a very
short time (with ISE WebPack and a Spartan 3 evaluation board from
Digilent/Xilinx)

If you want to find more infos, look at my linkpage:

http://www.aviduratas.de/links/projekte_fpga.html

A very thorough self learning course for Verilog on the web is:

http://vol.verilog.com/

It covers also the aspects of Verilog as a simulation language - I have
just leafed through it a little, but it is provided as an add-on to the
book of Patterson and Hennessy, "Computer Organization and Design", so
it should be of high quality.

Greetings

Jürgen


-- 
Jürgen Böhm                                            www.aviduratas.de
"At a time when so many scholars in the world are calculating, is it not
desirable that some, who can, dream ?"  R. Thom

b...@googlemail.com wrote:
>Hi,

>I'm very interested in starting to learn about fpgas. I tried finding
>if there was anything about it at local colleges, but it seems a
>little to specialised! 

Ouch.. ;)

>I'm quite adept at software engineering (C++/
>Java etc...), but I haven't done any assembly, or worked very close
>with any hardware in any sense (except for PC maintenance ;)

>I've tried to do some rough research so that I would have some idea
>before I asked questions, and it seems that there are two main
>languages used (programming fpgas seems more popular than schematics
>from what I've seen), Verilog and VHDL. From what I've seen from the
>two languages, I think I'd prefer Verilog, but I can't work out if to
>use Verilog 2005 and SystemVerilog? Is this again a matter of
>perference or are there advantages and disadvantages to each? It seems
>SystemVerilog has a few more features that aren't in Verilog, giving
>it an edge over Verilog. If this is the case then perhaps
>SystemVerilog is the best thing?

>But it's here where things just disappear for me! I'm struggling with
>where go to after this? I'm expecting a very steep learning curve, but
>perhaps some resource (maybe a very good book on the subject for
>complete newbies) giving some direction from here would be nice.

*) Learn the language (grab a decent book and read at least one fully)
  *) View some code examples
  *) Play with the free tools (actel, xilinx, altera etc..)

*) Learn some basic electronics.

*) Buy a development board ($50-$150)

*) Play with the board..

Some things here
http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/techitips/techitips_useful_things.html
that might held starting you off. If you want development boards then
we have those too.

For the must have cheaper addicts out there we have a special version
of one of our Craignell modules coming that will support a power jack
and arguably be the cheapest FPGA development board in the market. It
should give the CPLD boards serious competition in price along with
the 5V tolerance/CMOS compatability Craignell modules already offer.

John Adair
Enterpoint Ltd. - Home of Craignell.The Smallest Spartan-3E
Development Board.

On 16 Feb, 22:22, bitsbytesandb...@googlemail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm very interested in starting to learn about fpgas. I tried finding
> if there was anything about it at local colleges, but it seems a
> little to specialised! I'm quite adept at software engineering (C++/
> Java etc...), but I haven't done any assembly, or worked very close
> with any hardware in any sense (except for PC maintenance ;)
>
> I've tried to do some rough research so that I would have some idea
> before I asked questions, and it seems that there are two main
> languages used (programming fpgas seems more popular than schematics
> from what I've seen), Verilog and VHDL. From what I've seen from the
> two languages, I think I'd prefer Verilog, but I can't work out if to
> use Verilog 2005 and SystemVerilog? Is this again a matter of
> perference or are there advantages and disadvantages to each? It seems
> SystemVerilog has a few more features that aren't in Verilog, giving
> it an edge over Verilog. If this is the case then perhaps
> SystemVerilog is the best thing?
>
> But it's here where things just disappear for me! I'm struggling with
> where go to after this? I'm expecting a very steep learning curve, but
> perhaps some resource (maybe a very good book on the subject for
> complete newbies) giving some direction from here would be nice.
>
> Thanks! :)

Thanks very much for your information everybody.
It doesn't seem too
daunting when you're surrounded by people who know what they're
talking about! :)

Re: Digilents tutorials, although the four they've got are fantastic,
they seem a little sparse, also the remaining categories other than
tutorials in the education section says "check back in the coming
week", does anybody have any ideas on when this may be updated?

John, thanks for the site, the UK makes it a bit more accessible for
me. ;)

Thanks again everybody. It is much appreciated.