Re: [Flexradio] Xylo Update

[Christopher T. Day]

Ah. One of the things gone with the Forums is the TeamSpeak link. Remind me when the get-together is tonight?         Chris     AE6VK   From: ecellison [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 12:20 PM To: 'Jeff Anderson'; flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Xylo Update Jeff, Lyle, Steve, Phillip and others   Thanks for the wonderful comments. IT IS FUN! Will discuss on Teamspeak tonight also. I know PhilH will be there and give us an update on the work he was doing yesterday. Xylo-Phreaks don’t miss it, more to come…..   Here are some of the references which came off Phil Covington’s – N8VB’s blog:     Source of the Xylo Kit:   http://www.fpga4fun.com/board_Xylo.html     Verilog tutorial - look at ONLINE MANUAL -   http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Teach/Verilog/     More Verilog sites from N8VB   http://www.asic-world.com/verilog/veritut.html     http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~thomas/VSLIDES.pdf     http://www.web-ee.com/primers/files/VlogIntro.pdf     http://www.doulos.com/knowhow/verilog_designers_guide/     http://www.sutherland-hdl.com/on-line_ref_guide/vlog_ref_top.html     http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/cs141/resources/verilog-tutorial.pdf     http://www.doe.carleton.ca/~shams/97350/PetervrlK.pdf     Also check out Opencores, Which is basically ‘free hardware’, with a public domain buss between cores called Wishbone.   http://www.opencores.org/   C U later   Eric2                   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Jeff Anderson Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 2:04 PM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Xylo Update   Hi Bob (& others),   Once you get into it, you'll probably find that FPGA programming is not that difficult, and, given the power of the tools, can be much less frustrating than straight digital design.    I was dragged into the Verilog world a few years ago for work, and have been using the Altera tools exclusively (initially MaxPlusII, and now Quartus).  I'll admit that I'm not expert on the tools, but the Quartus environment supplies me with all I need, and I haven't had the need (yet) to learn other tools or techniques (including Test Benches).    You'll find that being able to simulate your designs on the computer (with Quartus) is a huge plus.  Functional simulations are timing-diagram driven - you "draw" your inputs, press a "button", and the tool will plot the outputs you've selected.  Makes the debug process *much* faster.   And Altera's SignalTapII feature, which allows you to "create" a logic analyzer within a part that's powered-up and running so that you can monitor its internal operation, is invaluable when working with BGA parts & buried traces.  However - it requires a JTAG interface to the part and a special interface module (I'm using Altera's "USB-Blaster).  But if you aren't working with a BGA part, you don't have to use SignalTap.  In the past, when I didn't have SignalTap to use, I'd write special code to route "selected" internal signals to unused (or seldomly-used) I/O pins so that I could monitor them with test equipment.   Anyway - please consider me a resource as you start to work on your projects.  Again, I'm no expert (not by any stretch of the imagination), but I have written Verilog code for a few projects, and I have used the Altera tools (which can be obscure at times), so I might be able to lend a hand if someone runs into a stumbling block.   (By the way - Quartus has an "archive" feature that allows convenient passing of a Project from one person to another).   73,   - Jeff, WA6AHL Steve Nance <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Lyle, Speaking for all us newbie's, thanks for the FPGA overview and run down on resources. Looks like we have a lot of reading/research to do to learn about the FPGAs and related hardware and software. As you mentioned my background was also in discrete TTL logic hardware designs and I can see a different mindset is required for today's devices. Looks like a lot of work, but what fun. 73, Steve - K5FR