In the design-consulting business, I have been exposed to countless FPGA
(Field Programmable Gate Array) designs, methodologies, and design techniques.
Whether my client is on the Fortune 100 list or is just a start-up
company, they will inevitably do some things right and many things wrong.
After having been exposed to a wide variety of designs in a wide range of
industries, I began developing my own arsenal of techniques and heuristics
from the combined knowledge of these experiences. When mentoring new
FPGA design engineers, I draw my suggestions and recommendations from
this experience. Up until now, many of these recommendations have referenced
specific white papers and application notes (appnotes) that discuss
specific practical aspects of FPGA design. The purpose of this book is to condense
years of experience spread across numerous companies and teams of
engineers, as well as much of the wisdom gathered from technology-specific
white papers and appnotes, into a single book that can be used to refine a
designer’s knowledge and aid in becoming an advanced FPGA designer.
There are a number of books on FPGA design, but few of these truly address
advanced real-world topics in detail. This book attempts to cut out the fat of
unnecessary theory, speculation on future technologies, and the details of outdated
technologies. It is written in a terse, concise format that addresses the various
topics without wasting the reader’s time. Many sections in this book assume that
certain fundamentals are understood, and for the sake of brevity, background
information and/or theoretical frameworks are not always covered in detail.
Instead, this book covers in-depth topics that have been encountered in real-world
designs. In some ways, this book replaces a limited amount of industry experience
and access to an experienced mentor and will hopefully prevent the reader from
learning a few things the hard way. It is the advanced, practical approach that
makes this book unique.
One thing to note about this book is that it will not flow from cover to cover
like a novel. For a set of advanced topics that are not intrinsically tied to one
another, this type of flow is impossible without blatantly filling it with fluff.
Instead, to organize this book, I have ordered the chapters in such a way that they
follow a typical design flow. The first chapters discuss architecture, then simulation,
then synthesis, then floorplanning, and so on. This is illustrated in the
Flowchart of Contents provided at the beginning of the book. To provideaccessibility for future reference, the chapters are listed side-by-side with the
relevant block in the flow diagram.
The remaining chapters in this book are heavy with examples. For brevity, I
have selected Verilog as the default HDL (Hardware Description Language).
Xilinx as the default FPGA vendor, and Synplicity as the default synthesis and
floorplanning tool. Most of the topics covered in this book can easily be mapped
to VHDL, Altera, Mentor Graphics, and so forth, but to include all of these
for completeness would only serve to cloud the important points. Even if the
reader of this book uses these other technologies, this book will still deliver its
value. If you have any feedback, good or bad, feel free to email me at
steve.kilts@spectrumdsi.com