FPGA Introduction
FPGA is the abbreviation of Field Programmable Gate Array. The field of application of FPGA is initially the communication field. However, with the development of the information industry and microelectronics technology, programmable logic embedded system design technology has become the most popular technology in the information industry. First, the application range covers a wide range of hot areas such as aerospace, medical, communications, network communications, security, broadcasting, automotive electronics, industrial, consumer markets, measurement and testing. With the advancement of technology and the development of technology, we have expanded to more and more extensive application areas. More and more designs have begun to shift from ASIC to FPGA. FPGA is entering every corner of our daily life in the form of various electronic products.
FPGA talent demand
Every year, the gap in the demand for FPGA design talent in China is huge, and the salary for FPGA design talent is also the highest in the industry. At present, there are more than 400,000 FPGA talents in the United States and 70,000 in Taiwan and only 10,000 in mainland China. It can be seen that China is eager to have more FPGA talents emerging.
How to learn FPGA?
FPGA is so important to us, so for beginners, how to learn FPGA? It is better to have a suitable instructor to learn a technology. This makes it easier to master FPGA technology. What a pity is that most schools do not have related courses or teachers with practical experience. How can we find a shortcut to help? How quickly can beginners learn such competitive technologies?
(1) Master the FPGA programming language
Before learning a technology, we often start with its programming language. Just like learning a microcontroller, we started with C language. After mastering C language, developing a microcontroller application is not difficult. The same is true for learning FPGAs. There are two programming languages ​​for FPGAs: VHDL and Verilog, both of which are suitable for programming in FPGAs. VHDL was developed by the U.S. military and became the IEEE standard in 1987; Verilog was transferred from the private property of a private company. Due to its superiority, Verilog became an IEEE standard in 1995. VHDL is widely used in Europe, and Verilog is widely used in China, the United States, Japan, and Taiwan. The author prefers Verilog because it is very easy to learn and is very similar to the C language. If you have a C language foundation, It takes only a small amount of time to quickly learn Verilog, while VHDL is abstract and takes longer to learn.
As a college student, the best time to learn Verilog is to learn synchronously while setting up the “Electronic Technology Foundation (Digital Section)†in the second year of university. It is not only possible to understand how digital circuits are implemented, but also to realize digital circuits through FPGAs. Seniors and seniors can further strengthen their study of Verilog, and they are recommended to use the "Verilog Digital System Design Course (Second Edition)" written by Professor Xia Yuwen published by Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics as a blueprint. A detailed introduction to the basic syntax of Verilog. If other beginners can directly use Verilog Digital System Design Tutorial (second edition) and the book that can fully grasp the syntax of Verilog, this is the first step to learning FPGA, but also an essential step.
(2) FPGA experiments are particularly important
In addition to learning programming languages, it is more important to practice. We can design our own programs to run in a real FPGA. At this time we need to choose a board to conduct experiments. The general board can basically meet everyone's needs. May wish to buy a piece to do experiments.
(3) FPGA training can not be ignored
Under conditions, the participation in the FPGA training can greatly improve their level in a short time, because there are many detours can be saved with a teacher. The author found Professor Xia Yuwen and engaged in an FPGA training class on the Internet. Interested friends can go to see or consult with qq. There are also many video resources on the Internet. You can also take a look down.
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