Finite Impulse Response (FIR) and Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) are the two types of digital filters you’re most likely to use in FPGAs. This article discusses the implementation of the filters seen from the eyes of a hardware developer.
The ‘stable and ‘quiet attributes are predefined in the VHDL standard and work on signal objects. We can use these special features in simulation to check that a signal’s value remains untouched for a given period.
Have you ever wanted to run a VHDL simulation that includes a Quartus IP core through the VUnit verification framework?
This tutorial shows you how to generate, incorporate, and link external Quartus IP libraries to VUnit.
Many people struggle to understand the ModelSim/QuestaSim VHDL simulator’s workflow. I think that’s unnecessary because the basic workflow isn’t hard to learn. I regard the graphical user interface (GUI) as a front-end for the commands listed in this article. For example, when you click the Compile button in the ModelSim GUI, it runs the vcom…
VUnit is one of the most popular open-source VHDL verification frameworks available today. It combines a Python test suite runner with a dedicated VHDL library to automate your testbenches.
When designing VHDL for safety-critical FPGA applications, it’s not enough to write testbenches at best-effort. You have to present proof that the module works as intended and without undesirable side-effects. Formal verification techniques can help you map a requirement to a test, proving that your VHDL module conforms to the specification. It’s an instrumental tool…
This tutorial covers using the Integrated Logic Analyzer (ILA) and Virtual Input/Output (VIO) cores to debug and monitor your VHDL design in the Xilinx Vivado IDE. In many cases, designers are in need to perform on-chip verification. That is, gaining access to an internal signal’s behavior in their FPGA design for verification purposes. One option…
Professional VHDL simulators are more expensive than most individuals can afford. But fortunately, there are many free and legal alternatives that you can download and install. Microsoft Windows is the easiest to install on, but many simulators also have a Linux version. FPGA vendors usually only support the Red Hat Linux distribution. But with a…
Text strings in VHDL are generally limited to fixed-length character arrays. That makes sense because VHDL describes hardware, and generic-length strings require dynamic memory. To define an array of strings, you have to allocate space at compile-time for the highest number of strings you want to store. And even worse, you must decide on the…
A latch is a logic element that can sample and hold a binary value, much like a flip-flop (register). But unlike a flip-flop, which is edge-triggered, the latch is level-triggered.
End of content
End of content