Questions !

[NewBie]

Hello group,


I'm a newbie, switched to verilog and vhdl from a software
background. However, I need to know:

1.what's the best way to approach this. I need to know what book
should I start with?
2.Is there any resource over the web ?
3.What type of hardware should I focus on ?
4.do you have suggestions about starting a personal lab at home ? if
so, how ?

Thanks in advance
Newbie

 

[Hendra Gunawan]

"NewBie" <ramsin@linuxmail.org> wrote in message
news:80f9995b.0404071338.290e8767@posting.google.com...

I'm a newbie, switched to verilog and vhdl from a software
background. However, I need to know:
1.what's the best way to approach this. I need to know what book
should I start with?
First, you need a good background in digital logic design. If you have done

digital logic design with schematics in the past, the will be a really great
help. A good book for beginner is "Verilog HDL" by Samir Paltnitkar. You can
read my review and others at amazon.com. Also, you need to be aware that
Verilog and VHDL is not programming languages. They are Hardware Description
Languages. In Verilog or VHDL, you don't program a computer, you describe a
hardware. So, you can not write a Verilog or VHDL code with C programming
mindset, you have to use "hardware digital logic design" mindset.

2.Is there any resource over the web ?
There are tons of resources on the web. Unfortunately, the information tend

to be incomplete or scattered all over the place. The best way to learn is
to get a good book in Verilog, such as the book I mentioned above. You can
also download free Verilog/VHDL simulator and synthesis tool. Go to
Xilinx.com and search for webpack. You may also want to look at
www.engr.sjsu.edu/crabill It is an FPGA design course using Verilog as a
tool.

3.What type of hardware should I focus on ?
Most people use Verilog and VHDL for ASIC and FPGA. The expensive cost of

ASIC plus the waiting time required to wait until your chip comes back from
the manufacturer make it prohibitive for individual engineer to use it as a
practice tool for learning Verilog and VHDL. FPGA, on the other hand, is
much cheaper and your design can be downloaded to the FPGA within minutes.
The big player of FPGAs in the market are Xilinx and Altera.

4.do you have suggestions about starting a personal lab at home ? if
so, how ?
The one I use is from www.digilent.cc

A rather long list of FPGA board vendors can be found at
www.fpga-faq.com/FPGA_Boards.shtml

Hendra

 

[Randy Thelen]

ramsin@linuxmail.org (NewBie) wrote in message news:

I'm a newbie, switched to verilog and vhdl from a software
background.

Jump on in, the water is great! There are lots of resources for folks
to get started. I picked this up about 6 months ago and I'm having
the time of my life! I spent 6 years building a central processing
unit out of 7400 series TTL. With the FPGA I'm building all kinds of
things I could only dream of when I was wire wrapping. See:

http://madscientistroom.org/mippy/

1.what's the best way to approach this. I need to know what book
should I start with?

I liked the comment above about how this is a hardware description
langauge, not a programming language.

3.What type of hardware should I focus on ?

I would recommend FPGA's. They're fun, they're easy. And, as hobbies
go, they're pretty inexpensive.

4.do you have suggestions about starting a personal lab at home ? if
so, how ?

I bought Tony Burch's board. I document my reasoning here:

http://www.madscientistroom.org/fpga/fpga-investigations.html

I suggest a subscription to some electronics magazine. I get Circuit
Cellar. Though I go to the local bookstore to purchase "Everyday
Practical Electronics" (from England) regularly. Nuts & Volts is fun,
too. There are lots of great ideas for a budding mad scientist.

I'm not excited about the Xilinx toolset, but they are the best I've
seen out there and they are Free. However, I do have to have a
Windows XP machine running at home in order to run the software. I
have a write up on that configuration here:

http://www.madscientistroom.org/fpga/macintosh.html

Last but not least, I found the Xilinx introductory material to be
geared toward those who have paid money for their development tools
(the nerve of those guys!). But, Tony Burch had, what I considered,
pretty good introductory material on his site:

http://www.burched.biz/resources.html

Good luck and have fun!

-- Randy