FPGA-101

FPGA Fundamentals

These are the fundamental concepts that are important to understand when designing FPGAs. If you have a solid grasp on these concepts, then FPGA design will come very easily for you!

• Lesson 1: What is an FPGA? What is an ASIC?
• Lesson 2: What is Digital Design?
• Lesson 3: What Are Logic Gates (AND, OR, NOT, XOR, and NAND)?
• Lesson 4: What is a Look-Up Table (LUT)?
• Lesson 5: What is a Flip-Flop?
• Lesson 6: Synthesizable vs. Non-Synthesizable Code
• Lesson 7: What every software programmer needs to understand about hardware design
• Lesson 8: What is a FIFO?
• Lesson 9: What is a Latch?
• Lesson 10: Tutorial: Shift Registers
• Lesson 11: What is Propagation Delay?
• Lesson 12: Setup and Hold Time
• Lesson 13: Metastability
• Lesson 14: Crossing Clock Domains
• Lesson 15: What is a Block RAM (BRAM)?
• Lesson 16: VHDL vs. Verilog: Which language should you learn first
• Lesson 17: Inference vs. Instantiation vs. GUI, which is best?

How To Get A Job In FPGA

• Part 1 – The Resume
• Part 2 – The Interview
• Part 3 – The Job Offer

FPGA Advanced Concepts

These concepts are useful once you have mastered the above lessons and decided which language you would like to start coding in, VHDL or Verilog. I recommend reading through these articles so that you avoid making mistakes before they happen.

• What is a Testbench?
• How to avoid creating a Latch
• VHDL Math: std_logic_arith vs. numeric_std
• Coding Style Guidelines for VHDL & Verilog
• Blocking vs. Nonblocking in Verilog
• Create Tri-State Buffer in VHDL and Verilog

FPGA Modules

• UART (RS-232, Serial Port, COM Port)
• Debounce a Switch
• Lots more VHDL and Verilog Modules!

Miscellaneous Articles

• Tri-State Bidirectional Buffers Not Synthesizing? Here’s why
• Make money with your FPGA! Bitcoins!