FPGA Embedded Design, Part 3 - EDA Tools

Explore what EDA tools are, review examples of available EDA tools, and identify their typical features.

Explore electronic design automation, automating hardware design with software suites, and compare integrated development environments to FPGA tools used in FPGA design.

Explore examples of eda tools for hardware simulation and pcb design, including Eagle, a design suite for FPGA, Multisim, Ultiboard, and Jacob, an open-source PCB design tool.

Explore the typical features of EDA tools, including schematic capture, HDL code entry, simulators for analog, digital, and mixed modes, FPGA design, software development, and PCB design.

Simulation gathers data from circuit models to predict real-world behavior, covering digital, analog, and mixed-mode simulations, plus FPGA and microcontroller simulators.

Explore pcb design as part of eda tools, mastering copper layer routing, silk screen creation, sadr mask layout, drilling files, and design rules check for through-hole boards.

Explore software development tools in FPGA design, including text editors, compiler and linker tool chains, debuggers with simulators, source-to-assembly translation, and runtime views of variables, registers, and memory.

Explore eda tools for FPGA development and review the usual steps to create FPGA applications, including the compiler steps used by software.

Create a project, write and simulate your code in a loop until it behaves. Then implement by assigning FPGA pins, specifying clock frequency, compiling, and downloading to hardware.

Create a project to guide simulation or FPGA implementation, specifying the target chip or board, language for code entry, and third-party IP or libraries to include.

Write your code for FPGA design, use RTL and technology schematics to validate the synthesis net list, include all modules, and use vendor IP cores, many available for free.

Assign pins in the tools by mapping physical FPGA pins to top level I/O, specifying direction and electrical features like Schmitt trigger and pull resistors, stored in a text file.

Explore the usual compiler steps for FPGA design: translate, map, place, and route. Synthesis handles both simulation and implementation, turning RTL designs into a netlist and generating a programming file.

Utilize timing analysis with tools to test the implemented design against timing constraints. The tool then analyzes the generated circuitry to verify compliance with all constraints.

Generate the programming file, a binary bitstream used to load the FPGA design into onboard RAM or flash memory, ensuring the design is stored on startup.

Download your design into the FPGA's RAM for loads during development, since RAM is volatile and loses data on power-off; for deployment, use non-volatile memory to load at power on.

Explore Quartus Prime, by Intel, and learn the installation setup, environment preparation, a quick walkthrough, a code example, simulation, and practical implementation of the tool.

Quartus Prime offers a full fpga development workflow with simulation and implementation, includes free licenses for hobbyists, and a streamlined download with selectable modules from Intel.

Download quartus prime from Intel, select the light edition and a compatible version (prefer 19.1), choose individual files, and enable cyclone 5 device support to match your board.

Launch the quartus setup with cyclone 5 and model sim packages, using the smart installer to grab related installers, then install the usb blaster driver and run the free edition.

Navigate the project navigator to view data for your open project and switch what you see with the dropdown. Explore hierarchy to access files, design units, AP components, and revisions.

Navigate FPGA design tasks by selecting an objective (full design, RTL or gates-level simulation) and follow compilation, verification, database export, archive project, and program device steps, ending with timing analysis.

Explore the IP catalog in the FPGA embedded design flow, featuring installed and partner IP, licensing options (commercial, open source, educational), and a library of soft processors and peripherals.

Create a new hello world project using the new project wizard, rename the directory to avoid overlap, and choose an empty baseline project for the zero cv board.

Create a flexible top module using if def statements to conditionally include switches and lcd, enabling a hello world that copies switch states to the lcd.

Explore a simple hello world implementation in a pre-written FPGA project, wiring the D.R. to S.W. and mapping a 10-bit LCD and switches.

Program the FPGA by connecting the board via USB, selecting the USB blaster in the program tool, and downloading the demo; the LCD displays reflect the switch states.

Explore EDA Playground by Doulos and learn the required setup, with a quick walkthrough and a code example. Note that the playground supports simulation only, not implementation.

EDA Playground is an online, cloud-based simulation tool with no installation, supporting many languages and simulators, including Icarus, free after registration, developed by Douglas.

Explore setting up the online EDA Playground for FPGA design, including browser and OS requirements, login options with Google or Facebook, and using non-commercial simulators like Icarus.

Explore the code entry workflow by creating a new design named my gate, wiring cascaded nand gates, and building a test bench to simulate stimulus.

Run a simulation by selecting a tool or simulator, configure compile and run options, and explore examples and community resources in the FPGA playground.

Navigate the documentation, browse playgrounds like PDA playground and AP wave, publish and search projects, and understand the wave form viewer and open EP wave forms after run.

This demo builds a four-bit ripple adder from a half adder and three full adders in Verilog, showing a and b inputs producing a carry-out and a five-bit sum.

Demonstrate using dump files and dump tasks to capture simulation data in FPGA embedded design, with depth levels 0–2 for top-level or module signals, viewable in ERP wave.

Demonstrates simulation control tasks in EDA tools, contrasting stop and finish. Finish stops the simulation and enables ep wave signals and plots, while stop halts output in the playground.

Explore five other design suites in the Vivado design suite by Xilinx, learn their value and the setup you need to perform, and view code, simulation, and implementation examples.

Explore the Vivado design suite, a full-fledged FPGA development tool with schematic diagrams, floor plans inside the FPGA, pin assignments, timing constraints, Vivado HLS editions, and a free license.

Download the Vivado design suite, choose the web edition with license, and use the unified installer on Windows or Linux to select components.

Navigate the Vivado installation wizard, select the essential elements, use the Web Westpac license for development boards, and choose the seven series devices while skipping unnecessary options.

Learn to create an FPGA project with the wizard: set name and location, choose the exact FPGA model, and configure sources, constraints, and the synthesis, implementation, and bitstream flow.

Explore the Flow Navigator in vato Design Suite, from block design and IP integration to synthesis, implementation, and programming the device via hardware manager.

Explore the project manager in the flow navigator, edit project settings for Verilog development on a specific FPGA, and access templates for Verilog and device macro instantiation for different FPGA.

Explore the ip catalog, view all ip without the ip integrator, and maximize the window by double-clicking the tab; discover ip from Arm and other partners.

Explore the project manager's sources view in this FPGA embedded design walkthrough, featuring the RTL module triple, its testbench, and the simulation workflow with waveform viewing.

Walk through the console output and messages in the FPGA embedded design workflow, highlighting the project summary, ticket console, warnings, and design run reports from synthesis to simulation.

Run a behavioral simulation in the FPGA embedded design workflow, explore signals with cursors, adjust radix, and create virtual buses to inspect and interpret bus data.

Walkthrough of creating and editing a basis three sdc constraints file to map pin associations from the top design to FPGA pins, enable switches and leds, and set IO standards.

Walks through creating a top module that instantiates the triple module, wiring a 4-bit input and a 6-bit lcd output, with design sources, test bench, and an xdc constraints file.

Synthesize and implement the design to generate the bitstream and deploy it to the FPGA via the hardware manager.

Open the hardware manager, connect the board via USB, and auto connect to program the FPGA with the bit file; observe LCD outputs and explore vato tools.

Explore LabsLand, a remote hardware lab tool for FPGA development, including setup steps, code and implementation examples, and real-time hardware execution without simulation.

Explore LabsLand, an online remote-lab platform that enables affordable, multi-user access to worldwide hardware, including FPGA and electronics labs, as an alternative to buying boards.

Explore lapsed land's home screen, remote labs, and demos, including Arduino robot and relay electronics lab; preview FPGA labs on Intel boards with tutorials and synthesis.

Explore the FPGA laboratory space and the board interface used to manipulate switches and buttons. Watch live board footage and note board variety, IDs, and VHDL tool references like DE2-115.

Explore Verilog IDE pin assignment on DE1-SoC and DE2-115 boards. Map inputs and outputs, 10 switches, 4 buttons, a 50 mhz clock, lcd, and seven-segment displays, with signal assignments.

This Verilog IDE demo modifies the LCD demo to a multiplayer circuit using switches as inputs and hex 0–3 displays to show addition and multiplication with seven-segment decoders.

Demonstrates a Verilog IDE demo of a live adder through synthesis and compilation, with console logs and programming a D1 FPGA board to a zero-errors, zero-warnings build.

Demonstrates converting a Verilog design from addition to multiplication in the Verilog IDE, synthesizing and uploading to an FPGA board, and observing hex results from the multiplier.

synthesize your design, leverage a cache of produced files to avoid recompiling when the source hasn't changed, then upload to the fpga to run the multiplayer.

Install and run example applications on the fpga d2 115 board; download the current design or other demos, including a blinking lcd, mirroring switches, and a clock.

Explore essential EDA concepts, from synthesis, simulation, and implementation to constraints, including assignments, while preparing to use any FPGA development tool.

Explore advanced FPGA timing constraints, pin assignments, and more EDA tools, then preview future topics like soft processors, IP course, and AC chip design.

Prepare to dive into an FPGA application in any development environment, using tools from this course or another vendor, and explore more courses by closure labs.

Identify what you can do in the wave menu now and what you can't, highlighting practical limits in FPGA embedded design within EDA tools.