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  • Author Author: Fred27
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Concentrating on HDL before P2P

Fred27

I've been really enjoying following along with Path to Programmable - both with the blogs on here and the Avnet Speedway course that seems to be an earlier version of P2P.

 

One thing I have found so far is that "Path to Programmable" is a slightly misleading title. I'm new to FPGAs. Completely new. I was hoping to get a good intro to FPGAs by following this, but that's not really been the case.

 

The Path to Programmable looks good but it seem to be all about the transition from FPGAs to the Xilinx Zynq SoC. A knowledge of VHDL or Verilog is assumed. Actually, that's not quite true. You may not need to know any to follow along with P2P, but you won't really learn any either. Perhaps it should be called "Path to SoC" or "Path to Zynq".

 

I'll still be following P2P with interest, but I'm going to give priority to my FPGA groundwork first.

  • I'm still enjoying P2P but also getting a lot out of just some simple Verilog/VHDL too. The book that Randall recommended is definitely worth a read.

    Recommended: Digital System Design With FPGA: Implementation Using Verilog And VHDL

     

    I've also decided that some CPLDs would be good alongside the FPGAs so have order a couple of cheap dev boards - Coolrunner II and 9500XL. I like the idea of some simple logic components at the opposite end of the scale from something like the Zynq.

     

    The 9500XL in particular looks useful. On the plus side:

    • It's a simple self contained device. No external storage or other bitstream loading needed.
    • It only needs a single 3.3V supply.
    • It's available in an easily solderable QFP package.
    • The Verilog/VHDL you write is exactly the same.

    On the down side:

    • It's not the newest tech.
    • You need to use the older ISE dev environment - which just about runs on Windows 10 with a hack or two.

  • Hi Dave - I agree with you! There is a lot going on that, even as a participant, I am not fully aware of. I just did a post linking to a few videos I found online which give a lot of good info on FPGAs and some other related material. (Link here to my post:)

    Labs 4-5-6 done! Path to the end???

    There are two EEVBlog videos and a third video that really enhanced my understanding of the underlying principals of the FPGA world.

     

    Keep in mind that I don't have much FPGA experience other than doing updates on FPGAs before this course; so I am about as green as it gets (for regular readers of the E14 community anyways).

     

    I also recently commented on another P2P blog about this. I spent an entire semester in college just talking about the nuts and bolts of PDF files; how they are created; how they deal with image files, layers, font subsets... I could talk ad nauseam on just the "export to PDF" dialog box and its related settings. For this program, I don't yet have a complete understanding yet why I have to check "include bitstream" other than the lesson told me to.

     

    I will agree that about 50% this course is "how to use Vivado", another 25% is "how the Zynq SoC works" and maybe 10-15% is 'nuts and bolts' FPGA stuff. (and some other miscellaneous stuff for the last 10-15%). Obviously knowing Vivado is important for a true day-to-day embedded programmer; but I would not rate this corse for a "100-level EE" type audience.

     

    I am really loving the learning experience, and the creators have done a great job in the lessons to make the easy enough to follow and successfully complete. I am looking forward to creating my own project and I only hope I have enough knowledge create this from scratch.