Introduction to FPGA design

PROGRAMME Duration: 4 hours

• Presentation of the FPGA technology
• Examples of projects
• Verilog HDL crash course
• Basics of synchronous logic circuits
• Hands-on implementation of various simple circuits

If time allows:

• System-on-Chip (SoC) design introduction
• Development and implementation of a hardware LED blinker core for the Milkymist SoC

REQUIRED EQUIPMENT Participants must bring FPGA boards and their laptops (preferably with Linux or a Unix-like operating system that can run x86 Linux binaries) with Xilinx ISE Webpack pre-installed and tested. Xilinx ISE installations are an involved and time-consuming process and we do not want to waste precious time during the workshop downloading multi-gigabyte files and/or fixing petty software installation problems.

Boards with FPGAs from other manufacturers (Altera, Lattice, Actel, ...) can also be used, and participants should similarly install the required design software before the workshop if they wish to do so.

For people who don't have boards, there will be a few Xilinx kits available for lending for the workshop's duration, and Milkymist One boards for sale nearby.