A big thank you to all helpful comments. I have had a course on FPGAs. I have read 3 books about it. I talked to colleges that actually did FPGA programming. I reviewed a VHDL Coding convention(I do not know if that really helped much). I downloaded and installed the Xlinx Software for Linux.
Buts that about it. I never wrote any VHDL or Verilog. The chance to work on FPGAs at work did not come. For small private projects µControllers are cheaper and _I_ can do these projects much faster without FPGA. For bigger Projects FPGAs would be an option, but I don't trust them due to my limited experience. Just buying a Dev-board and figuring it all out doesn't work for me. I don't have that much time anymore. Besides that was the point about Arduino. Arduino is not about the Hardware. There are a lot of Dev-boards available for all the processors out there, they are better, cheaper, have more features, more ram, more pins, less pins, whatever you like. But they are not a solution for starters ! If you are a company and give a Dev-board to the new employee, you give him the tools, some time and peers to ask some questions and he will learn whatever processor you gave him - no problem. If I would work on a project which needs to use one special FPGA I would learn how that thing works and after a hard starting phase I would be getting better and better with FPGAs. But up until now that project never came around. It's probably that I'm too old, have too less time or too much money, or that I'm not motivated enough. But just getting some board and start playing will not happen. It will probably not work and I have enough stuff that collects dust. I don't need more books as I think I know enough to evaluate at the start of the project if an FPGA can be a solution in this specific project or not. If I think yes I ask an expert to verify. I don't need just some Board that does or does not something. I will happy buy a board that - commes with the complete software, that runs on Linux, needed to program the FPGA, - that includes a documentation with simple steps of how to use the software(That was the problem with the Xilinx Software. It installed a set of tools that all seamed to have something to do with the steps needed. But where should one start ?), - an example that implements something at least a little bit useful(A blinking LED that can be switched on or of with a button is fine, or play something on SPDIF just a frequency sweep would be fine) - the documentation should explain every step from source code to running example, - has a community around it with people that have the same board an that I can ask for help, - is not the private proprietary property of one company alone. But that seems to much to ask. Check with Arduino, Arduino fulfills all these points. And I must say that I don't even like Arduino. For µControllers I go with just some Dev-board (because I know which are the important features to look for), I don't need a idiot proof IDE (because I know the tools and don't want to get limited in what features I can use), i don't need their libraries(They sacrifice performance, flexibility and power consumption just to make them easier to use), but I would recommend Arduino to people that want to get into embedded programming. So right now, until the Project that needs an FPGA comes around, or I find an Arduino like FPGA board as described, I will not enter the world of VHDL or Verilog as the entry barriers are just too high for a hobby. It is not something that you can do on a weekend. Lars Am 20.12.2012 19:40, schrieb Attila Kinali: > On Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:05:14 +0100 > Lars Poetter <[email protected]> wrote: > >>> I would like to ask you to stop pushing ideas around and start doing >>> something. Like writing some letters, meeting people and getting a big >>> investor. Or doing some verilog coding. There are also drivers that >>> need to be written... etc. Timothy will for sure be happy to give you >>> a list of things that need to be done. >> >> I don't know big Investors, so I have no one to write letters to and I >> have never ever coded verilog. So that leaves me with nothing to do to >> help. > > Not knowing something doesn't mean you cannot aquire the skills. > >> I would like to start programming FPGAs. But I don't know where to >> start. > > Pick up a good book, read it. Decide what small project you'd like > to do and start coding :-) > > I currently would recomend to go for "Digital Design - An Embedded > Systems Approach" by Peter Ashenden. There is both a Verilog and > a VHDL version of that book. For starting, i would recomend VHDL > over Verilog. Although VHDL is a lot more verbose than Verilog, > it has a lot clearer structure and prevents you from a lot of > typos and small mistakes that are very hard to spot in Verilog. > Learning Verilog later is like learning Java when you know C++. > The base concepts are the same, there is some difference in syntax > and a few in semantics, but nothing major. > > When you go the VHDL road you should definitly get "The Designers Guide > to VHDL" also by Ashenden, no matter what other book you buy. > It's The Book for VHDL. It contains all the gorry details in a simple > and easy to understand language. Including a lot of the traps with lots > of examples how to actually design circuits. (I have yet to find > a book of similar quality for Verilog) > > You can find quite a few examples of code on the opencores website[3], > for both Verilog and VHDL. But the quality of those varies a lot. > > For the impatient, you can find a very simplified overview of different > electronic circuits and their description in VHDL in [4]. This can > serve as an reference guide and can you get started, but is not > enough to learn VLSI design. > > >> I do embedded C Programming and for those that want to start >> embedded C Programming it is now easy, because they can start with an >> Arduino. If there is an FPGA-Arduino the please give me an pointer. If >> there isn't, then creating one would probably be a big step towards your >> target of more skilled People. > > There are several of them. A quite comprehensive list can be found > at [1]. I quite like the DE0-Nano from terasic[2]. But there are others > that are cheaper than that one, and probably better fit your needs. > You don't have to check the size of the FPGA for any of those boards, > as it is very unlikely that you will run out of logic blocks with > your first couple of projects. But you should ensure it comes with > "batteries included". Ie contain power supply, cables and stuff around it. > Makes life a lot easier. > > Attila Kinali > > > [1] http://tristesse.org/FPGA/CheapFPGADevelopmentBoards > [2] http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?No=593 > [3] http://opencores.org/projects > [4] http://www.actel.com/documents/hdlcode_ug.pdf > _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
