Seeing is Believing

Many readers will be aware that I am not, unlike my colleagues here at Elektor, a trained engineer. I have certainly been surprised by many things since I started work here over ten years ago with Ernst Krempelsauer. One concept that’s always fascinated me is the seemingly limitless potential of FPGAs. Engineers can describe a system in software and with the click of a mouse button realise it in hardware. An entire processor (why stop at one?) can be implemented if necessary.

After ten years as an editor at Elektor I still think the potential of FPGAs is far from being exhausted. I for one would like to see many more (Elektor) projects based on the technology. Maybe many semi-professional engineers have not really warmed to the idea of learning yet another language such as VHDL or Verilog.

A board like the XLR8 could change all that; it’s an Arduino Uno clone which is ‘almost’ compatible with the original. The huge assortment of Arduino Shields can be plugged and played to your hearts content via the Arduino IDE. The only difference is than there is no hardware version of the ATmega328 anywhere in sight. It has been simulated in software and implemented as an FPGA on the board. So you might be thinking this is a clear case of taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but the concept allows the more advanced user to integrate custom features such as more hardware interfaces, a floating point processor or whatever else you think your next application will need.
My much more experienced colleague, Clemens Valens thought it was a pretty neat concept too. In fact I wouldn’t mind betting he will be ordering one, or even better, two in the near future...

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Discussion (6 comments)

Brian Stott 8 years ago

I was introduced to FPGAs some years ago when I started using Arduino for 3D printing. I still can't quite wrap my head around them. They seem like smoky magic.

Program the hardware features you want of/in a chip and magically the FPGA is that desired chip. Want differen features simply program and you have a different chip.

I can't conceive and thus can't believe but, it is real. Cool!

Jason Pecor 8 years ago

The XLR8 board will also support development of custom Xcelerator Blocks - the dedicated custom hardware blocks in the FPGA fabric. The goal is to provide the ability for users to develop their own XBs as needed for a given project. In addition, it will provide a way to take some initial steps with FPGA design and access/use the functionality via a familiar platform (Arduino).

Alexandre Dumont 6 years ago

FPGA are not magic, they are reconfigurable chip. The designer designs the desired logic in an HDL (hardware description language like Verilog or VHDL), which is then converted into a format that will configure the chip to behave electronically as your design. The FPGAs are made of many electronic units that can behave like logic gates (AND, OR, NOT,...) wires and biestables, also some block rams, ...). (I put it simple as I understand it myself, I'm a hobbyist, not an FPGA professional in any way)

2 Comment(s)

Clockmaker 8 years ago

I have used FPGA and CPLD devices from almost all the major players in my job for the last 25 years. Yes they are kind of cool. Yes they can solve some problems very nicely. But in general, I am using them less and less. Mostly out of frustration as the mix of pins vs. logic density is never quite what I would like or there is some unique characteristic that conflicts with what I need. As microcontrollers integrate more functionality, I find there is less scope for a programmable device. At the same time, I often regret that the controller I am using does not have a small block of programmable logic on board. Although that is changing in small steps.

I have programmed logic devices using schematic logic, VHDL and various other languages. They all have their quirks but none has given me any real problem as most logic languages are quite small and quick to learn. The toughest curve to conquer has usually been the idiosyncracies of the development system itself. Each is unique.

Wondering, which schematics logic have you used to program FPGAs? (just curiosity, thanks)

Clockmaker 6 years ago

I have to admit that I have not used schematic entry for FPGA logic in many years. I believe at the time that Orcad Capture and viewlogic were the platforms I used. In those days, the logic was relatively simple and VHDL or the equivalent is much more compact.