FPGA Prototyping By VHDL Examples(Xilinx Spartan-3 Version)

Feb. 4, 2008

By Pong P. Chu
ISBN: 978-0-470-18531-5

There’s no better way to learn than by doing, and that’s the approach taken in FPGA Prototyping By VHDL Examples. If you’re relatively new to FPGA prototyping, this book is a decent place to start. The caveat is that it does expect the reader to be relatively fluent in the syntax of HDLs. Given that prerequisite, the book will instruct you in the effective derivation of hardware using VHDL and the Xilinx Spartan-3 FPGA family.

There’s three parts to the book. Part 1 introduces elementary HDL constructs and their hardware counterparts. It demonstrates the construction of a basic digital circuit with these constructs. Part 2 leads into applying the techniques from Part 1 to design an array of peripheral modules for a prototyping board. Each chapter in this section covers the development, implementation, and verification of an individual peripheral. Finally, Part 3 introduces the MicroBlaze FPGA-based soft-core microcontroller for the purpose of demonstrating the integration of a general-purpose processor and customization of the circuitry.

Brimming with code examples, flowcharts and other illustrations, the book serves as a good starting point for a development project. It’s recommended to anyone looking to get started with FPGA prototyping using VHDL. Just make sure you bring a little foreknowledge of VHDL and HDL constructs in general to the table.

About the Author

David Maliniak | MWRF Executive Editor

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.