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

Project 4 – Keeping cars in line

A classic design challenge for budding engineers is designing a traffic light controller. The Xilinx project files for the Nexys A7 can be found in CH4/build/traffic_light/traffic_light.xpr. Basys 3 doesn't provide the tricolor LEDs, so this project cannot be done directly using it:

Figure 4.12 – Traffic light controller intersection

The preceding diagram shows the basic scenario. We have an intersection with four traffic lights and four sensors labeled up, down, left, and right.

Some ground rules are as follows:

  • When a light is green, it will stay green for a minimum of 10 seconds.
  • When a car goes through a green light, it is ignored.
  • When a car waits at the red light, it signals the green to switch after it has been green for 10 seconds.
  • The light will stay yellow for 1 second when transitioning from green to red.

We've defined the problem. The first step, as always, is...