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Path to Programmable: About Training Project

 

If this is NOT a Design Challenge, what is the 'Path to Programmable' training project? Here's the story...

 

Origins of the Project

About a year ago, the element14 team turned its attention to Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs). Given the depth of content and breadth of projects on the Community, we saw PLDs as an area of electronics that deserved a lot more attention. Thus, we began sponsoring discussions on designing with programmable devices, and with the help of Avnet we sponsored RoadTests and hosted a related webinar. But it was really our members' comments about the reality of designing with PLDs that motivated us to launch this professional development training project.

 

What Our Members Told Us about PLDs

Through our member discussions, we learned about PLDs from a developer's point of view. One of our Top Members stressed the need to find the right end-application that truly required a PLD as a key factor in choosing a PLD over a processor in hardware design. Another member stressed the importance of a change in mindset from sequential programming to logical building blocks. Finally, nearly all of our members agreed that there is a significant learning curve needed to master the tools necessary to program PLDs. It was this last discussion point—the learning curve challenge—that the element14 team found interesting, and we thought it merited a deeper exploration. The outcome of this exploration was the birth of the Path to Programmable training project.

 

What Is the Goal of the Project?

The Path to Programmable training project will train five element14 members by providing them with free FPGA/SoC training modules with lab exercises. Once the training has been completed, the trainees will build a project with the MiniZedTM development board based on what they have learned.

 

In return for both the FREE training and the MiniZedTM development board, the five trainees will blog regularly on element14 to report about their learning experience, covering both the high points and the challenges of learning to program FPGA/SoC devices. The blogs will be read by the community and the project's sponsor to learn more about how to make the path to developing with programmable devices easier to realize.

 

What Will the Trainees Learn?

Any element14 member can apply to be a Path to Programmable sponsored trainee, but there are prerequisites, so please read the Application Instructions page before submitting an application. A course syllabus has been posted on the Course Syllabus page.

 

The Board

The official trainees will receive an Avnet MiniZedTM Development Board to complete the lab exercises and build their graduation project.

 

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The official trainees are limited to 5 applicants. But you can purchase the board below if you simply are interested in following along with the trainee blogs and the course syllabus.

Buy NowBuy NowTech Specs image

How To Apply?

Any element14 member can apply to be a Path to Programmable sponsored trainee. But there are prerequisites and specific questions to be answered in the application, so please read the Application Instructions page before submitting an application.

 

Important Dates

The training project will cover three phases: (I) enrollment, (II) training with labs, and (III) project building. The important dates are:

 

Enrollment Begin:July 26 2018
Enrollment Ends:August 27 2018
RoadTesters Selected:September 1 2018
Training Begins:September 7 2018
Training Ends: October 21 2018
Project Building Begins:October 28 2018
Project Building Ends:January 14 2019

 

Blogging Requirement

One of the key ways we can understand the learning curve challenge of designing with PLDs is for our trainees to provide us feedback about their training experience. Hence, they will be REQUIRED to blog frequently, from the start of the training through the completion of the project building phase. We want to learn about the high points and challenges of their experience, and this is critical to understanding the learning curve challenge that so many people experience when first trying to build hardware with PLDs.

 

Technical Assistance

As with any skills-building experience, there will be times when you need to rely on someone for help. To assist our trainees, we have arranged for mentors from our sponsor Xilinx, Avnet, and from senior element14 Community members. Please visit the Mentors page to learn more.

Graduation Awards

As a thank you for participating in the training project, and completing the training and project building, we will offer the trainees these graduation awards:

 

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Designing with XilinxRegistered FPGAs: Using Vivado

 

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FLUKE 3000 FC -  Wireless Digital Multimeter

 

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Pro's Kit Electronic Tool Kit

 

Special Note

The Path to Programmable is NOT a Design Challenge.  It is a professional development training project sponsored by Xilinx in conjunction with the element14 Community. element14 members who submit applications are competing to receive FPGA/SoC training only.

 

For any general questions about the Path to Programmable training project, please post a comment on this page.

 

To keep up-to-date with the Path to Programmable training project, please bookmark this project.

 

The deadline for application submissions is 27 August 2018.

  • will the course syllabus be posted publicly anytime in the near future?

  • Nice intro . I agree on the timing issue. The course timings I say are reasonable but could they push the project deadline to the end of December? It really would help us college students. We usually have our exams crammed at the start of December. *sob* *sob*.

  • in reply to david.long

    Thanks the piece of information you have provided is helpful

  • I think this would be a great opportunity for someone with the right set of skills, but I am concerned that you are not providing much guidance to applicants about what those skills are.

     

    For the benefit of community members who are not familiar with the Xilinx Zynq--7000 family, think of it as being like a BeagleBone or Raspberry Pi with a large block of programmable logic cells, all on one chip (the program memory is off-chip on the MiniZed board, just like the BB or Pi). So it is ideal for applications running e.g. embedded Linux that also need to process signals in real-time and/or in parallel - things that either cannot be done quickly enough or in a strict deterministic order from Linux. Examples might be high-speed motor controllers, image processing, maybe even a simple ML application - the Zynq 7000 programmable logic includes DSP blocks (multiply-accumulators) that could be used for a simple artificial neural network.

     

    So what skills do I think this requires? Here are some to get started:

    1) Building an application in embedded Linux (including an understanding of the boot loader)

    2) Arm A9 architecture (the Zynq XC7Z007S contains a single A9 core)

    3) Device drivers (your application needs to talk to custom hardware)

    4) Basic understanding of AXI bus architecture (connects Processing System to Programmable Logic)

    5) Designing the hardware implemented by the programmable logic - e.g. Finite State Machines, digital filters, arithmetic units, etc (some of these could come from the IP library)

    6) Writing synthesizable VHDL/Verilog code for the required hardware components (the IP generator might build some of this but you still need to understand and connect the generated code)

    7) Creating appropriate timing and layout constraints to ensure FPGA works correctly

     

    Xilinx Authorized Training Partners advertise a large set of training courses that teach these skills to engineers who need to design applications with Xilinx FPGAs. The two modules provided in this training project cover the Vivado PS-PL Configuration and SDK. The other skills could be picked up from other on-line courses/tutorials or text-books, but if the successful applicants are also holding-down full-time jobs, you are not allowing them much time to complete their projects!

  • in reply to rocketman49

    XUP really has a lot of workshops floating around covering the same material. What has caught my eye is the in-depth tutorial on SDK. That is something you don't see everyday. Will definitely apply for this course.

  • in reply to chidalgo

    I second this.  I would have zero chance of being selected for this but I'm more then willing to purchase the development board and follow along with the schedule, possibly even the blogging requirement (as my own personal diary of the journey).

    If enough people wished to do the same and a thread was created, we could act as our own mentors / help along the way.

     

    A skill I always said I was going to teach myself, but as always time never seems to appear.

  • Will the training materials be available to those who do NOT get selected - can anyone follow along?  Or is it limited to the 5 who are selected?

  • in reply to omar_amin_5

    Hi Omar, sorry you're having trouble.

     

    I just logged in with my non administrative account and was able to submit an application successfully, and I checked on our back end and saw the application there.

     

    Can you please try to register again, "Join the Challenge" on this page:

     

    Path to Programmable

     

    And if you get any errors, can you take screenshots to show what is occurring? Thanks!

  • Hi

    I would like to register but the page reloaded to the same old page!

     

    please, How could I register for the training?