Book Image

FPGA Programming for Beginners

By : Frank Bruno
5 (1)
Book Image

FPGA Programming for Beginners

5 (1)
By: Frank Bruno

Overview of this book

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have now become a core part of most modern electronic and computer systems. However, to implement your ideas in the real world, you need to get your head around the FPGA architecture, its toolset, and critical design considerations. FPGA Programming for Beginners will help you bring your ideas to life by guiding you through the entire process of programming FPGAs and designing hardware circuits using SystemVerilog. The book will introduce you to the FPGA and Xilinx architectures and show you how to work on your first project, which includes toggling an LED. You’ll then cover SystemVerilog RTL designs and their implementations. Next, you’ll get to grips with using the combinational Boolean logic design and work on several projects, such as creating a calculator and updating it using FPGA resources. Later, the book will take you through the advanced concepts of AXI and show you how to create a keyboard using PS/2. Finally, you’ll be able to consolidate all the projects in the book to create a unified output using a Video Graphics Array (VGA) controller that you’ll design. By the end of this SystemVerilog FPGA book, you’ll have learned how to work with FPGA systems and be able to design hardware circuits and boards using SystemVerilog programming.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
1
Section 1: Introduction to FPGAs and Xilinx Architectures
3
Section 2: Introduction to Verilog RTL Design, Simulation, and Implementation
9
Section 3: Interfacing with External Components

Other external memory types

There are a variety of memory types that have been introduced over the years that are or have become more common with FPGAs. I want to briefly touch on them as you might be interested in them for your own projects in the future.

Quad Data Rate (QDR) SRAM

Quad Data Rate (QDR) SRAM is commonly used in networking applications. Like DDR memory, data is transferred on both edges of the clock for performance. Unlike DDR, QDR has both read and write channels, so you can issue read and write commands simultaneously. Also, unlike DDR DRAM, this is an SRAM, so there are no refresh cycles and the latency for a read or write can be as low as about 13 clock cycles at 300 MHz.

QDR has a much larger capability than FPGA internal memory, but much less than DDR. It's also relatively expensive, which is why it's mostly used in networking applications.

HyperRAM

HyperRAM is a type of self-refreshing DRAM designed for Low Pin Count (LPC) applications...