Book Image

Architecting High-Performance Embedded Systems

By : Jim Ledin
4 (1)
Book Image

Architecting High-Performance Embedded Systems

4 (1)
By: Jim Ledin

Overview of this book

Modern digital devices used in homes, cars, and wearables contain highly sophisticated computing capabilities composed of embedded systems that generate, receive, and process digital data streams at rates up to multiple gigabits per second. This book will show you how to use Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and high-speed digital circuit design to create your own cutting-edge digital systems. Architecting High-Performance Embedded Systems takes you through the fundamental concepts of embedded systems, including real-time operation and the Internet of Things (IoT), and the architecture and capabilities of the latest generation of FPGAs. Using powerful free tools for FPGA design and electronic circuit design, you’ll learn how to design, build, test, and debug high-performance FPGA-based IoT devices. The book will also help you get up to speed with embedded system design, circuit design, hardware construction, firmware development, and debugging to produce a high-performance embedded device – a network-based digital oscilloscope. You’ll explore techniques such as designing four-layer printed circuit boards with high-speed differential signal pairs and assembling the board using surface-mount components. By the end of the book, you’ll have a solid understanding of the concepts underlying embedded systems and FPGAs and will be able to design and construct your own sophisticated digital devices.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
1
Section 1: Fundamentals of High-Performance Embedded Systems
5
Section 2: Designing and Constructing High-Performance Embedded Systems
10
Section 3: Implementing and Testing Real-Time Firmware

The FPGA compilation process

The process of compiling a digital circuit model begins with a specification of circuit behavior in a hardware description language, such as VHDL or Verilog, and produces as its output an implementation of that circuit that can be downloaded and executed in an FPGA. The software tool set that performs the synthesis process is sometimes called a silicon compiler or hardware compiler.

FPGA compilation takes place in three steps: synthesis, placement, and routing. Chapter 4, Developing Your First FPGA Program, introduced these steps. Behind the scenes, the software tools that perform the steps implement a collection of sophisticated algorithms to produce an optimized FPGA configuration that correctly implements the circuit described by the source code.

Before you can begin the compilation process, the first step is to create a complete description of the circuit, typically as a collection of files in the VHDL or Verilog languages. This is called design...