FFT implementation in Xilinx's Spartan 3

Hi members,
 I am a student and completely new to FPGA. I am learning VHDL. My
objective is to implement FFT in spartan-3 starter kit. I would like to
know how many months it will take me to fully design it. As a novice i
would like to know few suggestions and  references for my project. I
need help. I don't know from where to start.

biot wrote:
> Hi members,
>  I am a student and completely new to FPGA. I am learning VHDL. My
> objective is to implement FFT in spartan-3 starter kit. I would like to
> know how many months it will take me to fully design it. As a novice i
> would like to know few suggestions and  references for my project. I
> need help. I don't know from where to start.
> 
The answer depends mainly on you and you ability to grab new tools and
to analyse the problem.

FFT is a repetitive design, but it consumes lots of FPGA resources.

Now, what I think (worst case and the time schedule is not linear, every
task is intermixed with the others):

a) learning the tools (VHDL, ISE, and ModelSim) to get the profficicency
required: 1.5 months

b) dividng the FFT in separated design blocks: 0.5 months

c) writing the VHDL models, analysing and correcting: 1 .5 months

Important: you have to select the correct Sparatan 3 chip with enough
resources for your task and with a footprint according to the PCB
technology you have available (not everyone can use FPBGA)

Finally, there is an optional step d): This Eureka! you find after doing
most of the work, that makes you restart form scratch... 1.5 extra months

Anyhow, I repeat this is a worst case evaluation. As you are a student,
it should be easy for you to learn the use of VHDL withn Xilinx ISE and
Modelsim faster than that. The rest depends on your talent and training,
which I will judge by no means.

zara

Hi Biot,
have a look at www.opencores.org
The projects section contains different FFT implementations. It is up to
you, whether you just copy it, or whether you regard it as a starting point
for your own steps.

Jens

biot wrote:

> Hi members,
>  I am a student and completely new to FPGA. I am learning VHDL. My
> objective is to implement FFT in spartan-3 starter kit. I would like to
> know how many months it will take me to fully design it. As a novice i
> would like to know few suggestions and  references for my project. I
> need help. I don't know from where to start.

Thank you JARA and Jens