Fpga/cpld?

[Wilksey]

Not sure this is the right section, but you can turn one into a micro

I have access to an Altera DE2-70 development board, I have the latest Quartus web edition installed, the person who has the board doesn't have any documentation or cd's etc, it has been lost in the past few years.

Does anybody have any really good tutorials or information on where to start with FPGA's / CPLD's? I know they can do practically anything, but how and where do I start?

I read that they have removed a simulator and provided modelsim, but the manual for the DE2 I downloaded seems to be for a older version of Quartus and is completely different to the version I have!

I would really like to start learning how to program the FPGA's/CPLD's, I can't even visualise how you would for example implement a UART on a CPLD.

Thanks!

Wilksey

 

[Sceadwian]

Might want to learn to walk before you try to fly =) I've never programmed FPGA's myself, but I do know that the language and style of programming them is far and above different from anything you may have tried before.
Quartus provides plenty of tutorials on their site, towards the bottom.

 

[kubeek]

In fpga/cpld your only components are programable gates aka look up tables, D flip flops, and programable interconnects.
So if you want to have an uart, you need to set up the whole detection/trasmission circuit, something along the way of loading the incoming bits into a shift register and then looking for the start bit etc.

 

[Sceadwian]

kubeek, it's actually not that complicated if you do some research first. Opencores.org has a lot of VHDL/verilog IP-cores that are opesource or free to use including UARTs, generic micro controller cores and a lot more. Wilksey won't be able to use anything like that 'out of the box' so to speak learning basic VHDL concepts and coding through the tutorials needs to come first. Even something as pedestrian seeming as blinking an LED isn't simple.

 

[Wilksey]

Hi Scead,

Thanks for the comments, yes, I would like a good VHDL tutorial! I have had a quick look at the tutorials before, maybe I should read them properly

A lot of people focus on the "schematic" entry, where as I want to use VHDL as it seems to be the most popular one to use.

Thanks for the link to the IP cores, will come in very useful no doubt!!

kubeek,

Yes, I understand conceptually what they are and how they work, just can't seem to get to grips with the VHDL, haven't been able to find a really good in-depth detailed tutorial.

Regards,

Wilksey

 

[Sceadwian]

may help Wilksey, Google is your friend, I'm sure if you spend a good few minutes searching you'll find dozens of sites that provide useful information, one of them will help ya! The Tutorials from Quartus themselve will probably teach you the most as it will show you how to use their specific software.

 

[Wilksey]

Hi Scead,

Yeah, I have looked on that site and many others from Google, but all seem a bit vague on how the language itself works.

Wilksey

 

[kubeek]

I find VHDL very obscure and vastly undocumented, I had two semesters in which we wrote some code in it, but I never found a good tutorial that I could recommend, something that would cover the whole "how to make circuit in fpga" instead of just presenting the syntax.

If anyone know something that shows examples of typical tasks for implementation, and then shows the "industry standard" way to solve them, I would be very grateful.

 

[kubeek]

This https://www.seas.upenn.edu/~ese171/vhdl/vhdl_primer.html actually doesn´t seem that bad.

 

[Wilksey]

Thanks Kubeek,
I shall take a look at that link.

If anybody finds any more please post them!! All very interesting to read, hopefully will be able to grasp it!

Thanks!

 

[kubeek]

Here is a particularly good book: https://www.electro-tech-online.com/custompdfs/2012/03/free_range_vhdl.pdf

 

[Wilksey]

Thanks kubeek, will take a look!