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Learning FPGA

danielpgleason

Does anyone know of any good learning resources about how to start learning FPGA? I've been a software engineer for several years and the FPGA world is quite new to me. I'm trying to implement RMII but have been struggling a lot. I purchased a logic analyzer but I don't know what I'm looking at. I need something that will tell me how to properly understand and read datasheets, know how to debug signals, how to understand what VHDL is good and what is bad. How to read RTL generations..Etc

I'm starting from the beginning. Any resources or materials are greatly appreciated. 

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  • Hi, it's great that you are looking into FPGAs. It's a steep learning curve, there area a lot of topics to cover and depending on the FPGA vendor you might have easier/hard time with the tools.

    I'd recommend starting with Xilinx/AMD devices as the tools are a bit "easier" to navigate, and the documentation is ample.

    1. I'd suggest downloading Vivado from the AMD website and start exploring it a bit by writing some simple VHDL code, making a test bench for it and synthesizing the design.
        This is a good starting point as you can see how your code works, without wasting time of HW debugging.

    2. While doing 1, explore the VHDL language, the best resource is the "VHDL golden reference guide", also sites like vhdlwhiz.
         It is quite different from the programming languages in a sense that you have to think "hardware", and not just a list of commands. 

    3. Once you get the basic idea of the language you can start with some simple designs - UART, SPI, etc.
         At this point, you can implement the design on your FPGA and observe it with your logic analyser to test whether it works as expected.  

    4. Finally, there are also plenty of IPs  (intellectual Property, i.e. like a library) provided by the vendors, including virtual probes and analysers and ever RMII.
        To ge to know these, you simply read through the manuals for the respective IP.

    Good luck with it, don't hesitate to ask questions Slight smile

        
     

Reply

  • Hi, it's great that you are looking into FPGAs. It's a steep learning curve, there area a lot of topics to cover and depending on the FPGA vendor you might have easier/hard time with the tools.

    I'd recommend starting with Xilinx/AMD devices as the tools are a bit "easier" to navigate, and the documentation is ample.

    1. I'd suggest downloading Vivado from the AMD website and start exploring it a bit by writing some simple VHDL code, making a test bench for it and synthesizing the design.
        This is a good starting point as you can see how your code works, without wasting time of HW debugging.

    2. While doing 1, explore the VHDL language, the best resource is the "VHDL golden reference guide", also sites like vhdlwhiz.
         It is quite different from the programming languages in a sense that you have to think "hardware", and not just a list of commands. 

    3. Once you get the basic idea of the language you can start with some simple designs - UART, SPI, etc.
         At this point, you can implement the design on your FPGA and observe it with your logic analyser to test whether it works as expected.  

    4. Finally, there are also plenty of IPs  (intellectual Property, i.e. like a library) provided by the vendors, including virtual probes and analysers and ever RMII.
        To ge to know these, you simply read through the manuals for the respective IP.

    Good luck with it, don't hesitate to ask questions Slight smile

        
     

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