The Art of FPGA Design - Post 1

RE: The Art of FPGA Design - Post 1

thebluephoenix — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 11:41:48 GMT

Small and concise, but useful nonetheless!

RE: The Art of FPGA Design - Post 1

DAB — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 19:45:33 GMT

Nice post, but I think you need to go back one more step.

It is not an issue about using FPGA's, the first issue is why SHOULD I use an FPGA for my project over a regular SBC?

I have not used an FPGA, though I am aware of their capabilities and I used to do bit slice work back in the olden days.

I appreciate that FPGA's are underused in the maker arena, but before you make a big push to include and FPGA, you first need to make the case as to why it is better, faster or cheaper than just using a SBC and software.

Yes you can do custom logic circuits, but the Cypress Semiconductor PSOC gives me both analog and digital components to do some of that, though not to the full degree of an FPGA.

I still have the basic issue. Why should I invest a lot of my time to become proficient with an FPGA for a hobby?

DAB

RE: The Art of FPGA Design - Post 1

johnbeetem — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 15:26:38 GMT

Hi Catalin,

I'm looking forward to your series and getting the perspective of a Xilinx employee.

Here at element14 we've had numerous discussions about FPGAs in general and how to get people interested in using them. One of my favorites is Barriers to designing with FPGAs? I see the primary barrier as the steep learning curve, which I sometimes call the "The Cliffs of Insanity". You have to be pretty motivated to face that climb. You've got to admit that 50 MB just for the Vivado WebPack installer plus 16 GB for the rest of it does seem like an awfully big download just to get an LED to blink.

FPGA hardware entry cost isn't too bad, but it's usually at least US$50 when you include a programmer (either built-in or external) and shipping. It's not like trying a new programming language which you can download and run on your PC for free.

If Xilinx were serious about attracting entry-level designers I'd advise them to check out the Cypress PSoC 4200 prototyping board ($4-$5) and the Lattice iCEstick ($20-25). These are obviously being sold below manufacturing cost, but IMO they're a good way to attract new users.

RE: The Art of FPGA Design - Post 1

michaelkellett — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 07:42:22 GMT

Xilinx are not the only FPGA vendor, nor are they the only one to offer free tools.

In fact, both Lattice and Altera offer free toolsets which are probably rather easier for a beginner to get into.

And both Lattice and Altera offer modern FPGAs which are far more suitable for starting out than Xylinix's Series 7 offerings (the only parts supported by Vivado).

Of course, Xilinx still offer much simpler parts and free versions of earlier toolsets to support them.

For a beginner I recommend the Lattice ICE40 series of parts which are very simple, available in hand solderable packages, low cost and use very little power.

For the more ambitious projects try Altera MAX10, the whole range is available in 144 pin TQFP, comes in dual or single 3.3V supply options, with or without ADCs.

There are cheap third party and vendor supplied boards for X, A and L. (Lattice ice40 UltraPlus breakout board is $49).

Learning FPGA hardware design does require that you go all the way and build something that works - so it's not free. But the biggest cost is in intellectual effort - probably comparable (in difficulty and effort required) with teaching yourself to play piano to a decent grade.

And there are problems that FPGAs can't solve !

RE: The Art of FPGA Design - Post 1

shabaz — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 01:09:23 GMT

Isn't this a bit patronising? I'm not sure many engineers have "excuses" not to use FPGAs, yet your entire blog post seems to assert this premise throughout. Many engineers know that the toolchains are free, and that dev-boards really are not that expensive - sometimes even just tens of dollars.

I think it is very valid stating that hardware design is very different to software design, and given that the vendors themselves have not helped as much as they could have in the past (proof point: go check out how much good books and courses on various HDLs cost..) I wouldn't consider it an excuse, more a very valid reason!