Logic gates interactive demo
The basic logic gates NOT, AND, NAND, OR, NOR, XOR, and XNOR are fundamental building blocks in digital circuits corresponding to Boolean operators.
Play with the switches to see how the outputs change! 😀
Should I learn VHDL if Verilog is becoming more popular?
Which HDL is the most popular, and should I learn VHDL or Verilog? That’s a question I often get asked, and it’s understandable. People want to future-proof their learning by betting on the winning horse. But which one is it, and does it matter?
How to stop simulation in a VHDL testbench
How do you stop the VHDL simulator when the simulation is complete? There are several ways to do that. In this article, we will examine the most common ways to end a successful testbench run. The VHDL code presented here is universal, and it should work in any capable VHDL simulator. For the methods involving…
Make Lattice iCEcube2 work on Ubuntu 20.04 and program the iCEstick FPGA board
This tutorial shows how to install the Lattice iCEcube2 FPGA design software on Ubuntu 20.04. Instead of the Lattice Diamond Programmer, we will use the alternative programmer from Project IceStorm that works flawlessly on Ubuntu Linux. The Lattice iCEcube2 FPGA design software only works on Red Hat-based Linux distributions out of the box. Fortunately, we…
How to make ModelSim from Quartus Prime Lite work on Ubuntu 20.04
The ModelSim version that comes with Intel Quartus Prime Lite Edition is a good alternative if you want to try out VHDL simulation on your home computer. The software is available for both Windows and Linux, but Intel only supports Red Hat-based distros like CentOS Linux. Fortunately, you are just a few hacks away from…
Dual 7-segment display FPGA controller
In this article, I will present a VHDL module that can display a two-digit number on the Pmod SSD: Seven-segment Display from Digilent. The dual 7-segment display is compatible with the Pmod interface, meaning that you can use it without any soldering. It fits into the Pmod connector, which is standard on many FPGA development boards.
An Introduction to FPGAs & Programmable Logic
This video is an introductory presentation about FPGA and programmable logic technology. I delivered this 45 minutes talk at an event hosted by 7 Peaks Software in Bangkok, Thailand, on November 19th, 2019.
How to check if a vector is all zeros or ones
I know that I have googled this at least a hundred times throughout my career as an FPGA engineer; how to check if all bits in a std_logic_vector signal are ‘0’ or ‘1’. Of course, you know a few ways to do it already, but you want to find the most elegant code that will…
Why you always need a testbench
As most hardware engineers, I started off my computer science career by learning a sequential programming language. The first language I learned at the University of Oslo was Java. While it’s not considered to be the most exciting language today, at the time, Java was at the pinnacle of its popularity. The engineers who built…
std_logic vs std_ulogic
VHDL includes few built-in types but offers several additional types through extension packages. Two of the most widely used types are std_logic and std_ulogic. The difference between them is that the former is resolved while the latter isn’t. Before we go on to investigate what it means that a type is resolved, let’s first look…
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