This project sets up your FPGA board for use and shows you the steps in starting project files. It also gives you some basic background knowledge on electrical engineering and digital circuits. This is a starter project with very little hands-on work with your board, but it is a good reference if you ever forget how to start your projects.
Qty | Description | |
---|---|---|
1 | Digilent Nexys™3, Nexys™2, or Basys™2 FPGA Board | |
1 | Xilinx ISE Design Suite: WebPACK (14.6 Recommended) | |
1 | Digilent Adept |
The use of the word circuit in this context comes from the idea that electric power must flow from the positive terminal of a power source through one or more electronic devices and back to the negative terminal of a power source, thereby forming a circuit. If the connections between an electronic device and either the positive or negative terminals of a power supply are interrupted, the circuit will be broken and the device will not function.
A digital circuit consists of a power supply, devices, and conduction nets. Some nets provide circuit inputs from the “outside world”; in a schematic, these input nets are generally shown entering the left side of component and/or the overall circuit. Other nets present circuit outputs to the outside world; these nets are generally shown exiting the schematic on the right side. Circuit components are shown as arbitrary shapes, nets are shown as lines, and inputs and outputs are denoted by connector symbols.
In a digital circuit, power supply voltage levels are constrained to two distinct values – “logic high voltage” (called LHV or Vdd) and “logic low voltage” (called LLV or GND). The GND node in any circuit is the universal reference voltage against which all other voltages are measured (in modern digital circuits, GND is typically the lowest voltage in the circuit). In a schematic, it is often difficult to show lines connecting all GND nodes; rather, any nodes labeled GND are assumed to be connected into the same node. The Vdd node in a digital circuit is typically the highest voltage, and all nodes labeled Vdd are tied together into the same node. Vdd may be thought of as the “source” of positive charges in a circuit, and GND may be thought of as the “source” of negative charges in a circuit. In modern digital systems, Vdd and GND are separated by anywhere from 1 to 5 volts. Older or inexpensive circuits typically use 5 volts, while newer circuits use 1-3 volts.
In digital circuits, the Vdd and GND voltages are used not only to supply electric power to circuit devices; they are used to represent information as well. The most basic digital devices are called gates. The function of gates, or“gating,” is to allow or halt the flow of digital information. In general, a gate has one or more inputs and produces an output (more on that later).
Now that you have a basic understanding of what digital engineering is and how the circuits function, let’s move on to setting up your FPGA board and getting started.
You will need to have a computer connected to the internet and some time for this step.
This set of steps is for you to get familiar with how to create a project. Once you can create the module for a Verilog project you will have completed this project.
Select your board from the drop down box and download the file you need for this project: