How to program an FPGA board - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: pmamatsis
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2014, 04:47:32 pm
content: Hello to everyone and nice meeting you ! I am a complete newbie in the world of FPGAs and out of a small discussion with a friend of mine this subject really started to interest me. I have read a lot of articles on the usage of the FPGAs in our world today and i am thinking to start learning. I am thinking to buy a Terasic board and i want to ask two questions...1. Is the board [SoCKit - the Development Kit for New SoC Device] suitable for someone who is a beginner ?2. What do i need to start programming this board ? Is my understanding that i need to download the Web Install of Quartus II software from Altera correct ?Best regards and thank you in advance,Panos.

author: bwat
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2014, 05:30:16 pm
content: I've got the Nano DE0 (Terasic) and it works like a charm with the Altera Quartus II software. Try to find the "My first FPGA" tutorial for that board you want to buy. There's one for the Nano DE0 and it's a great getting started guide.

author: pmamatsis
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2014, 05:42:25 pm
content: Hi @bwat and thank you so much for your prompt reply !Do you have any book(s) about Verilog and digital design to recommend ? My background is a software engineer (for more than 15 years) but when i started reading about FPGAs it was like a new world opened up for me !!!Best regards,Panos.

author: bwat
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2014, 05:47:31 pm
content: You have the same background as I do. I'm working throughMano, M. Morris, and Kime, Charles R. Logic and Computer Design Fundamentals. 2nd Edition. Prentice Hall, 2000.The book takes your from nothing to CPU design. Check out the stuff I've done following the book herehttp://barrywatson.se/dd/index.html. It goes fromAND gateto aCISC CPU. All the code you see is done after reading the book and implementing the designs shown. I also have run it on my FPGA board using Quartus II. I also develop with the free tools Icarus Verilog and gtkwave.

author: pmamatsis
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2014, 05:53:08 pm
content: Hi @bwat once again my thanks !I will refer to all the material you point me to !

author: miguelvp
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2014, 06:26:42 pm
content: Altera has a lot of free online training courses for their tools:http://www.altera.com/education/training/curriculum/fpga/trn-fpga.htmlI also started with the DE0 Nano, I didn't want other things to confuse me.Note that the DE0-Nano comes with Quartus II version 10. something, so some examples in the DE0 manual use the SOPC. Altera has migrated to QSys and they are now on version 14, which is similar but you won't be able to do the step by step of the my_first_niosII. Should be fine for the my_first_fpga tutorial.But the fpga curriculum linked above is up to date, also version 10 can coexists with version 14.

author: pmamatsis
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2014, 07:35:50 am
content: Hi @miguelvp ; thank you so much for your valuable information !Actually after reading the posts from you and @bwat i was wondering if the Nano DE0 board is enough for future development. My meaning is that, from what i have read so far, an FPGAs "power" is defined by the number of programmable logic elements it contains.My question now is...because i will have a chance to travel to Asia and thus be able to buy a board without any import duty or VAT...would it be a good idea to spend a bit more and buy a bigger board or a Nano DE0 would it suffice ? I would really appreciate any feedback.Best regards and thank you in advance,Panos.

author: leppie
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2014, 07:48:08 am
content: I found this PDF very informative (and entertaining):http://www.xess.com/static/media/appnotes/FpgasNowWhatBook.pdf

author: miguelvp
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2014, 07:56:08 am
content: I can only say what I think helped me. The DE0-Nano doesn't have a lot of peripherals or an SoC or what have you, but it does have a ton of GPIOs (even the bigger ones will fall short on this). To me it kept me from wandering on what does it all do.But the other ones like theDE1-SoCboard has a ton of things, so you won't outgrow it, and it's not that much more plus it has an actual Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9, that said, it might help you or might distract you, not sure.I'm yet to get an FPGA-SoC so I can't comment if they are better. I just wanted to learn VHDL so the Nano was good enough.I do wish at times I had an actual processor embedded, but that will come later.

author: pmamatsis
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2014, 09:00:14 am
content: Hi @leppie and also thank you for your valuable ebook (i have already download it and reading it !)Hi again @miguelvp and thank you much for your valuable information about the SoC board (i am also checking it out in Terasic's site). I was thinking the same thing exactly !!! I mean the difference between the two boards are not so much and since i will get a chance to buy it from abroad (and save some on the VAT and import tax) why not ? Of course since i am a complete newbie about these things i cannot understand the significance of having a CPU on the board but as you correct point out...it will come to me slowly !Anyway...because i don't want to hog the thread...i will start reviewing and come back with some more "not-so-general" questions. Thank you so much for your kindness and understanding (even though my questions were so much generic) because i am trying to make sense.Best regards,Panos.

author: bwat
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2014, 09:42:23 am
content: Quote from: pmamatsis on August 03, 2014, 07:35:50 amOnly you can answer that. I develop CPUs and the Nano DE0 is enough for me. I probably spend 99% of my time testing with Icarus Verilog and C programs I've written to check the output. I only program the FPGA when I've finished a design and want to "run it for real".

author: pmamatsis
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2014, 10:38:35 am
content: Quote from: bwat on August 03, 2014, 09:42:23 amHi @bwat actually i believe that everyone are correct in this thread ! I must crawl before i learn how i walk...i believe that i will first start with something simple and then see how i can build up. Thank you for the valuable information.Best regards,Panos.