FPGAs 101: Everything you need to know to get started [Paperback]

Gina Smith (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1856177068 | ISBN-13: 978-1856177061 | Publication Date: February 22, 2010 | Edition: 1

FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays) can be found in applications such as smart phones, mp3 players, medical imaging devices, and for aerospace and defense technology. FPGAs consist of logic blocks and programmable interconnects. This allows an engineer to start with a blank slate and program the FPGA for a specific task, for instance, digital signal processing, or a specific device, for example, a software-defined radio. Due to the short time to market and ability to reprogram to fix bugs without having to respin FPGAs are in increasingly high demand.

This book is for the engineer that has not yet had any experience with this electrifying and growing field. The complex issue of FPGA design is broken down into four distinct phases - Design / Synthesis / Simulation / Place & Route. Numerous step-by-step examples along with source code accompany the discussion. A brief primer of one of the popular FPGA and hardware languages, VHDL, is incorporated for a simple yet comprehensive learning tool. While a general technology background is assumed, no direct hardware development understanding is needed. Also, included are details on tool-set up, verifaction techniques, and test benches. Reference material consists of a quick reference guide, reserved words, and common VHDL/FPGA terms.

• Learn how to design and develop FPGAs -- no prior experience necessary!


• Breaks down the complex design and development of FPGAs into easy-to-learn building blocks


• Contains examples, helpful tips, and step-by-step tutorials for synthesis, implementation, simulation, and programming phases

Editorial Reviews

Review

"FPGAs 101 provides somebody who has very little exposure to FPGAs or VHDL, but some familiarity with digital design, with an introduction to FPGA design. The first chapter, 'Getting Started,' provides a beginner's overview of programming, including how to name variables correctly, how to leave good comments, and how to find a good text editor. Later in the chapter, Smith begins an overview of the hardware description language, which extends until the end of Chapter 2. These chapters are written for those with no VHDL experience and are intended to provide a learn-by-example tutorial for implementing simple digital designs using VHDL, such as combinational logic circuits, flops, and counters." - reviewed on the Ethical Hacker website

Product Details

• Paperback: 245 pages
• Publisher: Newnes; 1 edition (February 22, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1856177068
• ISBN-13: 978-1856177061
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,408,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Newnes has really gone downhill, December 20, 2010

By 

EmbeddedFlyer (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FPGAs 101: Everything you need to know to get started (Paperback)

I have to agree with the others here. This book is far from "everything you need to know" and is more a random collection of the author's thoughts. It goes into too much detail in some areas and not nearly enough in others.

Newnes, many years ago, turned out mostly worthwhile books from well respected authors. But in the last several years they seem more focused on QUANTITY over QUALITY. They keep churning out new books, but almost all of them fit into one of these two categories:

- A re-hash of previously published content. Just look at their "World Class", "Know It All" and "Ultimate" series for examples. Little if anything new is in these books. They just cut and paste from previously published material--some of it very out of date. So you buy an expensive book with a current copyright, and you get 5+ year old recycled content. 5 years is forever for most of the topics being covered.

- Poorly written, poorly edited, rushed material from relatively unknown authors or authors writing outside their main area of expertise. There are of often many errors and ommissions, and it seems the priority is more on getting the book on the shelves rather than having a high quality book.

This book is in the second category. Like the other reviewer said, the covers are well done, but what's between them is seriously lacking. I would suggest Newnes spend some of their marketing budget on better editing and, in some cases, better authors.

My peers increasingly feel the same way. Many don't even bother to check out the latest Newnes releases, however appealing the titles might be, because they've purchased too many useless Newnes books in the last few years. This is another one of those books. Newnes is gradually destroying their brand and reputation.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is a very skimpy book, April 19, 2010

By 

S. Kwan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FPGAs 101: Everything you need to know to get started (Paperback)

The back page is written really well, but the content is not half as good. It's skimpy and confusing. There are segments of codes scattered throughout the book. The author gives you an impression that the tutorials will provide the codes for the reader to download and try, but there is nowhere on the internet that the codes were available. Following the book, I went to the [...] and found the book companions site [...]. Well, this book is not even on the list. I wish the author and the publisher be more responsible.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars 3/4 filling, 1/4 (poor) content, July 9, 2010

By 

Denis - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: FPGAs 101: Everything you need to know to get started (Paperback)

When you read this book, you end up wasting your time on the numerous repetitions (often of common sense advices).

Only one example of FPGA design, with the listing filling pages with code that is nearly cut/paste with different values.

Too many useless screenshots (what is the point in displaying 3-4 runs of the tool with/without error, when you've only one line of the screenshot that changes ?) sometimes, screenshots are following to the point that the last one refers to 5-6 pages ago.

If you want to learn about FPGA, forget about this book... there is nearly nothing about the actual langage and I'm not even sure that the only example is good coding practice (if I compare with codes from OpenCores for example)