An FPGA is a grid you configure
You will learn
What an FPGA is made of, and why a design uses only part of the chip.
A CPU runs instructions one after another. An FPGA has no program at all: it is a grid of small blocks -- lookup tables (LUTs), flip-flops, carry chains, block RAM and DSP multipliers -- joined by wires you can switch. Configuring the grid builds a circuit. Our bench chip is an AMD Artix-7 XC7A200T. The skyline draws one routed design on that die: every tile it configures stands up as a column, and most of the chip stays dark.
Try it
Rotate the die and tap the tallest column: which kind of tile sets the most features?
All lessons
Module 1 · The chip
What an FPGA is, which chip we use, and how its pins meet the board.
Module 2 · Numbers in hardware
Bits, trits and number formats, and what arithmetic costs in logic.
Module 3 · Your t27 program
Write a spec, test it, and see why compiling is not the same as being right.
Module 4 · Inside t27c
How the compiler reads a spec and what it writes, including the native t27b.
Module 5 · From spec to hardware
The Verilog t27c writes, the cells it becomes, and what one LUT does.
Module 6 · Reading synthesis
What yosys reports about your design, and which warnings matter.
Module 7 · Place, route, timing
Where the cells land on the die, and whether the clock is met.
Module 8 · The bitstream
How a routed design becomes the bits the chip loads, with no Vivado.
Module 9 · On the board
Ask the chip who it is, load the bits, and check them.
Module 10 · Lab: our own research
A number format of our own, an honest scoreboard, and a model's tables multiplied on the board.