Getting Started With FPGA's Part 1

[@drescherjm]

Paul, I would definitely like to see more videos on this subject.

[@charlie99210]

Thank you! I've been wanting to look into FPGA's for a while, and a series beginning with the most basic info on them is appreciated.

[@awaisahmadsiddiqi6505]

Perfect tutorial, no unnecessary wavering. Easy introduction of both hardware and software

[@olafv.2741]

Back in 1985, this looked like magic. So many gates and so much flexibility. And programming it on a PC. I managed to talk myself into an Altera demonstration using my IBM business card during a trade show in Amsterdam. I was very impressed indeed. Interesting video and thankfully not too long.

[@opalprestonshirley1700]

This will be a great I've been wondering about FPGA's and having someone start from the beginning will be a big help. Thanks for all your hard work.

[@iwbnwif]

Yay, my DE0-Nano board just arrived - really looking forward to working through these videos!

[@nigeljohnson9820]

While FPGAs and PLDs are purely logic devices, they can be used to implement at least one analogue function. They can be used to make a PWM output that with an RC filter can be converted to an analogue signal, for instance a tone generator.

[@MalagasOnFire]

Never touched the FPGA so this is fresh and good to learn. Thanks for keep it simple :D

[@brianoc22]

Been wanting to learn about those FPGAs for a while now.. great video as usual.

[@nigeljohnson9820]

The biggest problem with using FPGAs or even PLDs in hobby projects is placing them on a PCB, they have just too many pins. The bigger devices use ball grid array connections. I spent 15 years working with FPGA and PLDs. Altera always had the most friendly development software. I have found one of the limitations of the Altera FPGAs is that they are implemented in ram and require an external non volitile memory device to hold the program or an external processor to write the program to the FPGA at power up. In the early days there was a significant difference in the design philosophy needed for PLDs compared to FPGAs. The former were very limited by the logic cell avaliable, most were linked to the number of pins. So much so, that some logic functions needed logic to be looped back through an external pin. Designing with FPGA devices like stratix or cyclone had so many logic cells that a different design philosophy is required. The epm7064 was my favourite PLD, as with only 44 pins in a j pin SO package, it was the largest device I could place on a hobby PCB. I found designing with these logic devices, where everything happens on a clock edge in a parallel, made it difficult to return to microcontrollers and DSP programming, which perform essentially sequential logic operations. For the very large FPGA devices, the design process is rather abstracted from VHDL coding. As the philosophy becomes one of designing a system on a chip, with macros for processors, memory, (both ram and rom) and all kinds of peripheral such a either net, serial bus standards, PCI and PCIs, uarts etc. At this level of abstraction, the design process became one of ticking boxes to indicate what was to be included in the chip, rather than the more satisfying logic design.

[@jonelectronics510]

The cheap cplds such as the coolrunner is rather restrictive in terms of macrocells. So much so it is normally easier just to use a micro unless you have a specific clock reason as you say.

[@nigeljohnson9820]

@@jonelectronics510 I agree, finding a place to use a FPGA or PLD can be difficult. Apart from anything else it requires a particular mind set to see how the logic devices can be applied. My introduction to them was the very small EP600/620 and the 22v10. It was certainly easier starting with PLDs and working up to FPGAs. In my first project, I was required to use an EP600 as the interface between a radio frequency synthesiser PLL and a non volitile memory device which stored the frequency programming data table. A set of dip switches changed the prom upper address lines, allowing the synth to step through the lower address lines to read the eight or so bytes that defined the VCO frequency by setting the synth dividers. Using a PLD solved a number of problems that could not be addressed by a microcontroller. One of the problems was that the synthesiser kept refreshing from the prom instead of reading from the prom once after the upper address lines became stable. This resulted in the generation of RF sideband noise on the VCO output, as each refresh disrupted the divider count. The PLD was able to check when the upper address lines became stable and trigger a single refresh cycle for the synth dividers. Using a micro in this application would have been impossible as itsown click would have contributed to the RF noise and the refresh process was under the control of the synth IC. Using a PLD had the added benefit that it was possible to design the logic so that in later versions the the prom could be dumped and the address lines used as a serial bus interface to a central microprocessor controller. This allowed the synth to be controlled remotely. Allowing a stack of base station transceivers to be configured from a central user interface. It all sounds very old fashioned now, but this in the early days of synthesiser telecom PMR equipment. before that radio frequencies were set by switching crystals on crystal oscillators. It is surprising how much can be achieved with just 64 macro cells. I once used an ep7064 to implement a full optical channel modem, complete with PLL clock extraction, and biphase encode/decoder. The PLL was interesting as it used the same digital phase detector as can be found in the CD7046 PLL IC. In this case it was used to pull a VCXO which was divided down to make the master bit clock.

[@LimbaZero]

@@jonelectronics510 I think I planned "bridge" for ATMega128 memory bus. it created chip selects and AD buffer for ram and other 6 devices and it also contained 8 bit in and 8 bit out. I think that fit in 64 macro cell device.

[@Tresla]

Please continue this series! :)

[@vojtechmarsal8576]

Hell yeah! FPGA's here we go!

[@mikeoliver3254]

I’ve not gotten to FPGA’s yet my learning about electronics, thank you for showing that it might not be as daunting as I was thinking. Great first step video I look forward to what comes later on even if I’m still not quite ready to take the plunge. What great fun electronics is, always something more to challenge myself with. Thank you for all you do Paul.

[@michaelpadovani9566]

I'm really glad you're doing this series, look forward to the future videos

[@robertparenton7470]

Thank You! Got all FPGA board to start learning.

[@lfmtube]

Very instructive and a great compilation of the information needed to start with this topic. Thank you very much.

[@neilvanheerden9614]

Thanks for the video. Really good stuff. I'm just starting out with electronics but you show me so many cool things to get excited about further down the line!

[@jonelectronics510]

Years ago I wanted to reduce the size of PCB so took advantage of Xilinx CPLD, A XC953615 if I remember, to create: a 7 seg decoder, Binary to BCD converter, some glue logic for another part of the circuit and several PWMs for some reason I can't remember....anyway it reduced the chip count and still worked from 5V (Yeah those were the days!). Ultimately they can be really useful if you want a load of IOs and completely seperate/independent driven logic circuits - true parallel processing. It was also a mix of synchronous and asynchronous circuit design. Modern day FPGAs and CPLDs to an extent are very difficult to place into a hobby project without a huge price tag from additional components to support them -as you mentioned. Looking forward to see what designs you come up with ;)

[@bogo867]

Got this video as a recommendation, instant subscribe. Can't wait to see more.

[@nicksanto882]

I always thought that FPGA was on the TV when one turned to one’s favorite TV station to watch the Stealers and there was a bunch of golfers there.....

[@JeremieDuthil]

Hi, good to see this kind of video, FPGAs are so little known. I am currently working with FPGAs but I am on VHDL side, not verilog (sorry guys ^^). Just to answer a small question, the MAX10 is basically based on a Cyclone 4 architecture with an internal flash added. And a second point, Altera was bought by Intel and is now named Intel PSG. If you want to attract the people who come from "software" world, you could speak about SoC devices or just the Nios software processor which is compatible with MAX10 or Cyclone 4 you presented. Please continue, we can do so much things with FPGAs !

[@hughatkins]

Thanks for starting this series! I'm looking forward to it!

[@FPGABeginner]

I tried to start with FPGA programming, but didn't really get my head around it. I found the VHDPlus IDE and with the simple language, embedded libraries and other features it helped me a lot to make some cool projects :) Just in case someone has the same problem

[@ajlenze8]

I'm glad you're doing videos on FPGAs, but what about more videos using the FPGA on the Arduino MKR Vidor 4000?

[@learnelectronics]

Once I learn some verilog

[@ionpetrache84]

Thanks for the video. Would be really nice if you could continue with some more FPGA videos.

[@geirendre]

Hey this is gonna be cool. Have been thinking of looking into FPGA's for a while. Just not quite sure what I could use it for... What's wrong with people who dislike a video of someone who tries to educate others? Thank you Paul, I think you do a wonderful job.

[@rrowan327]

Yeah FPGAs!! Been looking at them for a couple years now and watching videos about them. I have a couple of projects I want to try with it. Just need to purchase the hardware. Did you get the smaller one working yet?

[@learnelectronics]

Not yet

[@st3ddyman]

It’s much easier to select the Board than the Chip. That will also give you all the default constraints

[@trentt7296]

I'm still unsure when it become practical to use a FPGA. At what stage should a project consider one?

[@Jnoel608]

I did this in college. Paid for the course and everything but I had no idea what was going on. I just followed lab instructions.

[@Marco_Onyxheart]

I don't think that an FPGA that has been programmed is considered an ASIC. ASICs can be described using an HDL, but they're usually chips that are specifically made to do this one task as described in their HDL. Can't ever do anything else. You can update an FPGA by reflashing it. You can't update an ASIC unless you remove the IC from its print and replace it with an updated ASIC.

[@deepakns6931]

Great video I always wanted to learn about FPGAs Please make more videos on this subject

[@antonypilepich8947]

Thank you, i look forward to seeing more.

[@philipacovington]

Great introductory video! FPGAs are really great for those interesting in retro-computing or learning how a CPU works. I am implementing Ben Eater's 8-bit computer in an FPGA in a series of videos on my channel for anyone interested.

[@hamed6167]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us, sir

[@kungfumaster8171]

good beginning tutorial on FPGA's thank you.

[@iPatroni]

I have the Arduino vidor. I don’t think the promised graphical IDE was ever shipped so it’s just sat on my bench. Looking forward to this series.

[@isbestlizard]

HEY! I need my drone to run computer vision kernels and do neural net inferencing and I think an FPGA would be a PERFECT way to do that :D :D

[@ajlenze8]

I didn't see a link to the smaller STEP-MAX10 FPGA board. Amazon: www.amazon.com/STEP-MAX10-Altera-FPGA-Development-Board/dp/B07V5T92HS Aliexpress: www.aliexpress.com/item/32867905155.html Also, I thought it might be worthwhile to compare how much logic is available on each FPGA. Here's a summary: STEP-MAX10 (10M02S device): 2000 Logic Elements/108Kbits memory/16 18x18 multipliers/2 PLLs DE0-Nano (EP4CE22 device): 22,320 Logic Elements/594Kbits memory/66 18x18 multipliers/4 PLLs Arduino MKR Vidor 4000 (10CL016 device): 15,408 Logic Elements/504Kbits memory/56 18x18 multipliers/4 PLLs Note that these are different device families, so these numbers may not be apples-to-apples comparisons, even though all these devices are from Intel. Also, these boards contain other devices other than the FPGA. These other devices may not be so important if the goal is to learn about FPGAs and how to design them, but for a specific application, these other devices can be crucial. For instance, the Arduino board also contains a pretty powerful SAMD21 microcontroller and a WiFi device. Hope this helps and sorry if I made any mistakes.

[@josephmazzeo9413]

Who needs an FPGA when you have a drawer full of 555 timers? ....nice presentation but would love to learn more...I started dabbling with FPGAs when I was looking at a home brew 68000 classic micro SBC (a "jackintosh" - I grew up with the 68000 chip so to speak so it's one of my favorites of the classic micros)...one design I am looking at requires an Altera (now Intel apparently owns them) as the glue logic which controls SDRAM timing, address decode, and refresh logic, communication and other control functions. I was attracted to the design because it can be built for low cost but does require programming a MAX chip in circuit (the design files are all provided). These FPGAs can easily replace 100s if not 1000s of discrete logic chips (sequential and gate logic) so learning them is well worth the effort. Here is the Tiny68k SBC I am referring to >> www.retrobrewcomputers.org/doku.php?id=boards:sbc:tiny68k (there is also a rev 2 design follow the link in the post) Note if it weren't for the MAX chip that board would be MUCH larger and more expensive. Quartus software is pretty heft so you need a decent processing machine with plenty of RAM and hard drive space to compile designs. Note that this would be considered an advanced level project - I would not recommend for beginners. Try learning to program a GAL or PAL chip first.

[@bincyelizabeth19799]

Please continue uploading new videos like this ; watching from kerala India.

[@jogeshsingh854]

Great ! I'm thinking about learning it .

[@MichaelSteele02]

More please. I am very interested in digital electronics. If you need it I have some Quartus files I can send you of basic circuits proving some basic Boolean algebra with the block diagram file and VHDL file to prove that both methods would have equal input/output combinations and truth tables.

[@csl9495]

Thanks. I'm studying Security plus and the FPGAs section confused me haha. Seeing what it actually is, helps.

[@vivekvenkatsubramaniam437]

Very nice video. Could you do more videos on this? Plus, more recommendations of what kind of fpga is cheaper, etc. Thanks, Paul

[@cerglabs3646]

Part 2??

[@bluegizmo1983]

My question is, as a beginner with his first FPGA, what exactly can I do with an FPGA that I can't do with an Arduino? I understand the basics of what an FPGA is, and I know that people who really knows what they're doing can make crazy things with them, but I don't understand what someone with brand new basic knowledge of FPGA's can do with one or why they wouldn't just use an Arduino. Or are FPGA's just one of those things that aren't very useful at all until you're actually master them?

[@rampr4225]

Arduino Uno doesn't allow to implement hardware logic. Example: What if you were to OR two sensor signals and connect them to a single External interrupt pin. With an Arduino Uno you will need to externally interface an OR gate chip whereas with an Fpga you can implement both the Arduino Uno logic as well as the OR logic. Some MCU's are available with Fpga fabric built into them like Cypress Psoc and Microchip has CLC feature

[@ellentao6559]

Hi! I came across this video while struggling with this and was hoping to follow along with the part 2! However, I can't seem to find it does anyone know where I could locate it?

[@learnelectronics]

Nowhere I'm afraid. FPGAs broke my brain.

[@tenlittleindians]

Can these be wiped and reconfigured for another application if desired?

[@learnelectronics]

Yes they can

[@LimbaZero]

Each powercycle FPGA will fetch it's configuration from external FLASH device or master MCU will configure it. Also for bigger FPGA:s you can use partial reconfiguration with PCIe where pins configuration is stored in FLASH image and rest is downloaded over PCIe.

[@awesomefacepalm]

I hope you will cover the basics in field programmable powerade too

[@jameskolby]

Thanks the great video! I found it to be very informative!

[@AbhishekChauhan-fl3db]

thanks for this information. I am new to FPGAs. I am working with STRATIX IV 230 and i want to implement a simulink file in FPGA using DSP builder. Can you please demonstrate in detail how to interface simulink with Development board.

[@roneymonte]

Great class! I wanna see more!

[@kwhp1507]

So it’s a PLC? Forgive my ignorance, I am trying to learn electronics and see everything from the perspective of an electrician.

[@liwenchang3260]

Yes and no. It is far more powerful than PLC but at the same time far more complicated to engineer

[@kwhp1507]

Hmm I find these intriguing. But I have a bunch of arduino boards and a raspberry pi that I have not used because I find the code part of it intimidating.

[@liwenchang3260]

@@kwhp1507 yes its a very interesting subject even to those who work in very similar field. My Boss has more than 20 years experience in embedded software but he is still impressed all the time about what this thing is capable of.

[@stevenbliss989]

Is there a part 2 ?

[@jeffhurckes190]

Who has the small elephant stomping around in the video?

[@MCsCreations]

Really interesting, dude! Thanks a lot! 😃

[@anispinner]

Let's Finally GO!

[@bradcfi2]

Could you program a 10-minute timer for amateur radio station identification?

[@adamkimbrough5460]

Man I just had an entire semester with one of these as an EE. Not my thing...

[@LimbaZero]

Found manuals and example source codes to that step10max board. just go stepfpga github page.

[@stevemaas99]

what is the use case of a FPGA over an Arduino Uno?

[@learnelectronics]

Totally different animal

[@FPGABeginner]

FPGAs are much faster and for example much better for image recognition or robots

[@jonelectronics510]

And to blow you mind further, you can build micros inside an fpga!!

[@rampr4225]

An Arduino Uno has a single processor(Brain) so it can do one single task at a time. With an Fpga you can implement multiple processors on it and have them do multiple tasks at the same time(Parallelism)

[@georgeveropoulos2489]

hi ! which software i must download ? thank

[@mooiwiele]

Thanks - I learned a LOT today! (In a lighter vein: my old ears had to listen twice: Field Programmable Gatorade? No: Gate Array...)

[@robinhodson9890]

I'd like to see a video on setting up the simulation software for an FPGA: Of the free licences which promise a basic system, most of them require something like 200Gb free HDD space, just for component libraries I'll never use. So I install the bare bones of one of them, try to call up the supposedly included model simulator, and it isn't there. They left that bit, the only thing I actually need, out. Feeble excuses about a version upgrade; just install this new version, it only needs 500Gb of HDD space and you can't split it. Er, no. So I download the freeware: That simply won't run, then it needs a new Java install to run upon, but there's no guidance apart from "install this thing" (which doesn't work). I could do it by buying a kit with a DVD with all the software on it, but I can't afford that for a few months.

[@vojtechmarsal8576]

Any HDL plans in the future?

[@learnelectronics]

Yes

[@kellyflynn2971]

a little moisturizer wouldn't kill ya. cool video tho, thanks!

[@FPGABeginner]

Hey, check out VHDPlus.com. I think for beginners much easier and also works with Intel FPGAs

[@dubaifatimaali]

Aren't FPGA and ASIC two different IC's? Answer anyone please.

[@MichaelFJ1969]

Yes. FPGA's can be programmed "at home". ASIC's are manufactured with a specific implementation. Two entirely different chips, and two entirely different processes. Both the HDL (Hardware Description Language) is the same.

[@dubaifatimaali]

@@MichaelFJ1969 thank You so much, I got confused with this video.Now its all clear. God Bless You!

[@conorstewart2214]

Great video but did he really say X-AND as a gate type?

[@bblod4896]

LOL, many RED markers. Nope, not me, although that was a great gift. Enjoy.

[@davidluther3408]

TOTALLY LOST ON THIS.

[@catalinalb1722]

Hi Paul, I want to congratulate you for this new topic and also for your work. I was wondering if there is some open source software that can transform the FPGA into a mining station.... Aince you said the word ASiX my mind run to the mining machine. Great video 👍. Looking forward to the upcoming tutorials.

[@pev_]

I feel that if you intend this to be a beginner's video, you should have explained more about the differences between at least an MCU and FPGA. Both are programmable, usually also down to pin-level functions, so what does that mean, what is the difference then? You don't have to answer me here, I know this, but just like assuming a noob viewer I remained confused. Of course nowadays everybody can google things and gradually get the understanding, but still, if you make a video for beginners, proper explanation and differentiation is in order, I think.

[@kavialptekin]

what is an XAND gate?

[@made-of-amelium]

Sometimes it's just another name for an XNOR gate, other times it's purely a joke gate

[@theengineer9910]

Hey that's my fpga

[@weerobot]

I like Crinkly noises...lol...I can hear Rain??

[@neilvanheerden9614]

Those unboxing videos.... hmmmm :D

[@shis10]

Why Analog FPGA can't exist ?

[@jonelectronics510]

They could exist and numerous companies have tried. Most these days will be something that a company has requested a chip to be designed, for example, an FPGA with ADC channels built in for a specific purpose. The are numerous reasons why a flexible design analog system would never really work. In analog you want to control noise etc so leaving a chip to route it's own pathways that are uncontrolled would be rather haphazard, digital integrity is not really an issue in comparison as you have more wriggle room when it comes to data integrity. If a digital signal has to get routed through a dozen blocks then the overall loss would be negligible when it came to interpreting the values but for analog every block could add more noise or loss causing the signal to degrade very quickly. You can get FPAA which stands for Field Programmable Analog Arrays but they are nowhere near as adaptable as an FPGA.

[@shis10]

@@jonelectronics510 👍

[@vegtersbaas]

I've bought a Efinity FireAnt FPGA from Crowdsupply.com. Dont know what the heck it is.. nor how to use it. Thanks Paul hope your vid will shed some light though probaby not compatible with FireAnt.

[@pulesjet]

As a New To Me Computer person 1980's ? I never found a use or need for PROMS other the EPROMS for Computer uses. Storing Programs. I'm sill of the the mind set although I can visualize a need and use for them I would not have one. Too lazy and my mind is not articulate enough to employ them.

[@bud03038]

Wow, great video! de WQ1I 73'S

[@ralphyrocket5770]

Fucken A!!!! Been waiting for this video/Topic!!!! Thank you sir!!!!

[@tvamos73]

This video just confuse me but didn't help.

[@user-be4yc2vr5c]

Soon as I find a job I love thats not run by/owned by slavers and slave masters and find a good stress free living wage in america I'm patting tf outta all my youtube teachers. (so never, but thought that counts? =p)

[@aneeshprasobhan]

yay c: