Beginner with FPGA and need help!

I'm in my last year at my university and I decided to do a FPGA-based project for my final thesis!

I've got a quite good background of Electronics and a little about Digital techniques.

I don't know where to begin with FPGA and which websites that I can find out more about FPFA.

Can you recommend me some thing to read so that I can begin with FPGA and do some very easy first projects!

If you can recommend me some websites, please share your experiences and ideas for my projects!

Thank you very much!

Hi,
see on this page:
www.xilinx.com
www.altera.com
this is two of the biggest producers
both offer free developed software
Good luck
Halba

Hello,

You should choose one starter Kit(including board and software) from Xilinx or Altera. I recommand Xilinx's new Spartan3 board (including 200k gates Spartan3 chip), it's $99. My director buy one for me, hehe.

Before you buy a board or design it yourself, you should read the datasheet thoroughly (the most important pages may less than 100), it's important for further design. And writing code by verilog or vhdl is a must, after that you may see your system running and enjoy it.

The most important thing, know what are you doing, and don't hesitate to realize it!

Regards,

Davy Zhu

semiconductor said:

I'm in my last year at my university and I decided to do a FPGA-based project for my final thesis!

I've got a quite good background of Electronics and a little about Digital techniques.

I don't know where to begin with FPGA and which websites that I can find out more about FPFA.

Can you recommend me some thing to read so that I can begin with FPGA and do some very easy first projects!

If you can recommend me some websites, please share your experiences and ideas for my projects!

Thank you very much!

Click to expand...

Search in xess.com site. There are many kit which is introduced in this site. You can download some manual about kits. Yoy can see the schematic and design a private kit for you. After that you can download Webpack software from Xilinx.com site to program for FPGA or CPLD chip.

Bye and good luck.

what simulation is used for the fpga designs.

is it possible to learn the FPGA design with only software tools?

binu g

I think before going towards FPGA u should first learn HDL languages like verlog or vhdl. While learning hdl language make programs and check them on simulator (like modelsim etc). Then after that go toward FPGA.

I can only encourage you doing a FPGA project as I did in my final thesis as well.
Only had some hours in university for vhdl programming but it was quite a while.

The Hardware side is quite easy, connect power, booting lines and have a special
look at the pin configuration that's allmost all for a starting point.

But I think you should first start with any HDL. So decide for a product (@ltera/Xilinx), install the software including model_sim or any other modeling software and get some experience with this first.

Starting a project from scratch with a lot of literature and reading first will give you
a good overview over the whole stuff. But this takes quite long.
Have a look a xilinx website, they offer code fragments for many different purposes.
So you can see a working code and gain first experience in adopting this code to what
you need.

good luck,
aOxOmOx

you better do a project on design and simulation. If you want to do a board design using fpga, this will take long time. but if you want to learn both hardware and fpga design, then you may go for design of baord, simulation and fpga design. but this will take a long time. I suggest you to go for FPGA based digital design, coding and simulation. if time is there, then you can think of baord design.

ahsan said:

I think before going towards FPGA u should first learn HDL languages like verlog or vhdl. While learning hdl language make programs and check them on simulator (like modelsim etc). Then after that go toward FPGA.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your recommendation, I'm studying VHDL and I'll choose Xilinx FPGA IC to implement my project!

By the way, Where can I download Modelsim to simulate my design?

Aoxomox said:

I can only encourage you doing a FPGA project as I did in my final thesis as well. Only had some hours in university for vhdl programming but it was quite a while.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm planning to do a project for my final thesis before graduation but because of my lack of knowledge, experience and practical, I'm wondering where to begin and what project is suitable for a Bachelor graduation thesis!

It would be very kind of you if you can share with me your thesis report and project report to my email address:

haibinhle@yahoo.fr

Aoxomox said:

The Hardware side is quite easy, connect power, booting lines and have a special look at the pin configuration that's allmost all for a starting point.

Click to expand...

What do you mean booting line here? I mean I don't have a clear sense of word "boot".

Aoxomox said:

But I think you should first start with any HDL. So decide for a product (@ltera/Xilinx), install the software including model_sim or any other modeling software and get some experience with this first.

Click to expand...

I decided to start learning VHDL and to choose Xilinx FPGA IC for my project. Of course, I'll use Webpack to program and now I think I'll use ModelSim to be my simulation Software!

Aoxomox said:

Starting a project from scratch with a lot of literature and reading first will give you a good overview over the whole stuff. But this takes quite long.

Click to expand...

Yeah, It takes me lots of time to read but it's not a matter! I'll try to finish my first simplest project of FPGA in about 1 month !

Aoxomox said:

Have a look a xilinx website, they offer code fragments for many different purposes. So you can see a working code and gain first experience in adopting this code to what
you need.

good luck,
aOxOmOx

Click to expand...

Yeah, Thank you for all information you shared with me, it's very useful!

Sincerely yours, Peter!

well, you need to learn the fundamental of verilog or vhdl first. Try to think your code as real circuit especially in the state-machine design. Then, learn the operation of eda software such as altera's quartus or xilinx's ise in depth by reading the software manual and user guide. Try to get a development board for testing purpose, this can enhance the speed of your learning curve, trust me. So, once you reach here, you must have lots of idea to implement something something as well.

semiconductor said:

Thank you for your recommendation, I'm studying VHDL and I'll choose Xilinx FPGA IC to implement my project!

By the way, Where can I download Modelsim to simulate my design?

Click to expand...

I dont think downloading modelsim from the internet will be a good idea. The software takes around 45-50Mb space. I dont know whether modelsim is available on the internet but if it is, it will be the evaluation version.....so i will suggest you to purchase it

I disagree with Aoxomox as he said "The Hardware side is quite easy, connect power, booting lines and have a special look at the pin configuration that's allmost all for a starting point."
i dont think that the hardware side is that much simple. Once you have tested your program on the simulator there are still many chances that it will not run on the FPGA. I am doing my final year project on FPGA and i have experienced it..