FPGA Design: Best Practices for Team-based Design [Hardcover]

Philip Simpson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1441963383 | ISBN-13: 978-1441963383 | Publication Date: August 11, 2010 | Edition: 1st Edition.

This book describes best practices for successful FPGA design. It is the result of the author’s meetings with hundreds of customers on the challenges facing each of their FPGA design teams. By gaining an understanding into their design environments, processes, what works and what does not work, key areas of concern in implementing system designs have been identified and a recommended design methodology to overcome these challenges has been developed. This book’s content has a strong focus on design teams that are spread across sites. The goal being to increase the productivity of FPGA design teams by establishing a common methodology across design teams; enabling the exchange of design blocks across teams. overage includes the complete FPGA design flow, from the basics to advanced techniques.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

FPGA Design: Best Practices for Team-based Design Philip Simpson Many Companies struggle with establishing a working FPGA design methodology across design teams in their Company. As design teams become more dispersed globally, the need increases for a standard design methodology. This book describes best practices for successful FPGA design. It is the result of the author’s meetings with hundreds of customers on the challenges facing each of their FPGA design teams. By gaining an understanding into their design environments, processes, what works and what does not work, key areas of concern in implementing system designs have been identified and a recommended design methodology to overcome these challenges has been developed. This book’s content has a strong focus on design teams that are spread across sites. The goal being to increase the productivity of FPGA design teams by establishing a common methodology across design teams; enabling the exchange of design blocks across teams. Coverage includes the complete FPGA design flow, from the basics to advanced techniques. • Presents complete, field-tested methodology for FPGA design, focused on design reuse across design teams; • Offers best practices for FPGA timing closure, in-system debug, and board design; • Details techniques to resolve common pitfalls in designing with FPGAs.

About the Author

Phil Simpson is Altera’s senior manager for software technical marketing and product planning. In this role, Simpson is responsible for Altera’s Quartus II software and third-party EDA interfaces product planning and the creation of the Altera design flow software roadmap. Prior to joining Altera in 1996, Simpson held several engineering roles at various EDA and semiconductor companies, including EDA Solutions, Data I/O and Lucas Aerospace. Simpson holds a BS (with honors) in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from City University, London and an MSC (with distinction) in system design from the University of Central England, Birmingham, England.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 166 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1st Edition. edition (August 11, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1441963383
• ISBN-13: 978-1441963383
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,427,379 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Phil Simpson was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He now lives in the Bay Area, California and is a Sr. manager in Product Planning at ALTERA Corp. He manages the Software Product Planning team which is focused on FPGA design methodologies. Mr. Simpson has more than 20 years of experience in the digital design, semiconductor and design automation industry. Prior to joining Altera in 1997, Mr. Simpson performed FPGA design and applications engineering in UK and Australia. He holds a BSc in electrical and electronic engineering from City University, London and a MSc in system design from University of Central England, Birmingham.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for modern FPGA designs, October 22, 2010

By 

Mike - See all my reviews

This review is from: FPGA Design: Best Practices for Team-based Design (Hardcover)

I am started using FPGAs over 15 years ago, and back then, you just started writing HDL and got the thing working.
This approach simply doesn't work anymore - the FPGAs are too big, designs are much more complicated, need for design reuse, need to incorporate FPGA vendor or third party IP, incremental compilers, and so on. Plus, multi-person design teams are often the norm.
This is the first book I know of that walks you through all of these issues, and more, with common sense advice how to approach FPGA design systematically. The book is easy to read (I read the whole thing on a coast-to coast flight), and even for advanced FPGA designers or managers, I guarantee you will find some new ideas and suggestions on how to improve your design flow.
Lastly, despite the fact the author works for Altera, the book is completely nuetral on FPGA vendor choice, and doesn't make any sales pitches on behalf of Altera.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative but expensive, February 5, 2011

By 

Mike K. (San Jose, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FPGA Design: Best Practices for Team-based Design (Hardcover)

Most FPGA related books are introductory texts that cover HDL and digital system design or specialized texts that focus on a narrow research area. However, a real world FPGA project involves many other aspects, such as PCB design, power analysis, debugging etc. This book provides an overview of the overall FPGA development process and highlights key issues in each step.

The book can benefit both novice and seasoned engineers. For a novice reader, it serves a good second book in this area (after an introductory HDL text). The book is well written and easy to follow. It mainly shows the "big picture" and does not include too much technical details. It can be finished in few days.

My main complaint of the book is about its cost. It is quite expensive for a book of 150 pages and just for relatively "light" reading. I will give it 5 stars if it is cheaper. In fact, since the author is a senior manager in Altera, I think Altera should commission the author and make the manuscript available on its web. The sale of additional FPGA devices can easily offset the cost.

4.0 out of 5 stars Must read for Engineering Managers and FPGA design teams, January 11, 2011

By 

Nkari - See all my reviews

This review is from: FPGA Design: Best Practices for Team-based Design (Hardcover)

This book will not tell you how to architect an FPGA based system i.e. take your system requirements and map them into custom hardware, processors, system interfaces etc. Instead, this is a practical guide that helps engineering managers and FPGA design teams sit together and map out a war-strategy to tackle complex projects spanning months, possibly years.

Having been involved in several complex projects like this, I can identify with many of the best practices that have been implemented in my projects that have yielded significant productivity enhancements. I can also relate to a couple of best practices (sitting down as a group and nailing requirements, partitioining design blocks up front) that if ignored can and will joepardize both quality and schedule.