FPGAs: Instant Access
FPGAs are central to electronic design! The engineers designing these devices are in need of essential information at a moment's notice. The Instant Access Series provides all the critical content that a computer design engineer needs in his or her daily work.
This book provides an introduction to FPGAs as well as succinct overviews of fundamental concepts and basic programming. FPGAs are a customizable chip flexible enough to be deployed in a wide range of products and applications. There are several basic design flows detailed including ones based in C/C++, DSP, and HDL. This book is filled with images, figures, tables, and easy to find tips and tricks for the engineer that needs material fast to complete projects to deadline.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 The Fundamentals
CHAPTER 2 FPGA Architectures
CHAPTER 3 Programming (Configuring) an FPGA
CHAPTER 4 FPGA vs. ASIC Designs
CHAPTER 5 "Traditional” Design Flows
CHAPTER 6 Other Design Flows
CHAPTER 7 Using Design Tools
CHAPTER 8 Choosing the Right Device
*Tips and tricks feature that will help engineers get info fast and move on to the next issue
*Easily searchable content complete with tabs, chapter table of contents, bulleted lists, and boxed features
*Just the essentials, no need to page through material not needed for the current project
Why Read This Book
You should read this book when you need a compact, practical reference that gets you up to speed quickly on FPGA concepts, common design flows, and trade-offs between HDL and C-based approaches. It delivers digestible summaries, diagrams, and tips you can consult on a deadline rather than a deep textbook treatment.
Who Will Benefit
Engineers and technicians who need a fast, readable primer or quick reference on FPGA architectures, tool flows, and when to use HDL vs C-based methods.
Level: Beginner — Prerequisites: Basic digital logic concepts (gates, flip-flops, combinational vs sequential logic) and comfort reading block diagrams; some programming or HDL exposure helps but is not required.
Key Takeaways
- Explain core FPGA architecture elements (LUTs, CLBs/logic cells, routing, block RAM, DSP blocks, clocking resources)
- Compare and choose between HDL-based and C/C++ (HLS) FPGA design flows for common applications
- Describe basic VHDL/Verilog constructs and how they map to FPGA resources
- Estimate resource usage, timing and basic constraints to inform simple floorplanning and timing closure decisions
- Implement common DSP patterns on FPGAs and understand trade-offs in fixed-point arithmetic and resource usage
Topics Covered
- Introduction: What is an FPGA and where they're used
- Fundamentals of digital logic as applied to FPGAs
- FPGA architectures: LUTs, logic cells, routing, RAM and DSP blocks
- Clocking, timing, and constraints
- HDL overview: VHDL and Verilog essentials
- Design flows: synthesis, place & route, bitstream generation
- C/C++ and DSP-based flows (HLS and MATLAB/Simulink integration)
- Vendor toolchains and IP cores (Xilinx, Altera/Intel basics)
- I/O standards, board-level considerations and configuration options
- Debugging, verification, and in-system testing
- Power, reliability and packaging considerations
- Practical tips, checklists and quick-reference tables
Languages, Platforms & Tools
How It Compares
Shorter and more of a quick-reference than Pong P. Chu's FPGA Prototyping books (which are hands-on with many lab examples); less deep and academic than Wayne Wolf's FPGA-based System Design but much more accessible for fast lookup.
