basics-graphics-music: A collection of portable Verilog examples for FPGA and ASIC design

YURI: This text has to be edited

These are examples to demonstrate labs sessions for systemverilog-homework which are portable SystemVerilog examples for FPGA and ASIC.

FPGA Field Programmable Gate Array is a type of integrated circuit that can be programmed multiple times. It consists of an array of programmable logic blocks and interconnects that can be configured to perform various digital functions. FPGAs are commonly used in applications where flexibility, speed, and parallel processing capabilities are required, such as in telecommunications, automotive and aerospace.

ASIC, Application Specific Integrated Circuit, this is an integrated circuit chip designed for specific use for instance, telecommunications, automotive etc.

These examples facilitate learning for beginners by:-

1. Removing EDA and FPGA vendor complexity and restrictions.
2. Compensating the gap between academia and industry in solving microarchitectural problems necessary for a career in ASIC design, building CPU, GPU and networking chips.
3. Reducing the barrier of entry for them or a person who is transitioning to FPGA/ASIC design.

Getting Started

You only need a few things to get started:

1. Get a compatible FPGA board.
2. Install drivers and required software.
3. Download or checkout this repository on Windows, Linux, or macOS.
4. Run 06_choose_another_fpga_board.bash to select your board.
5. Run 03_synthesize_for_fpga.bash to synthesize, place, and program your board all in one go.

That's it! You're now running Verilog example code on real hardware. Press buttons on the board and check for LEDs to light up accordingly.

First time setup

1. Follow the instructions for Windows, Linux, or macOS to set up your environment.
2. Optional: Configure VSCode:
   1. Install these extensions: 🔧 TODO: Verilog extensions configuration
   2. Recommended extensions: GitHub Pull Requests and GitHub Repositories
3. Checkout this GitHub repository. Check out Git Cheat Sheet if you need additional help

   Optionally, switch to a new_graphics branch to get access to the bleeding edge features.

4. Select the right board:

   cd ./labs/1_basics/1_01_and_or_not_xor_de_morgan/
   ./06_choose_another_fpga_board.bash

   Type number corresponding to your board and press Enter.
5. Synthesize, place and program the board using a Git Bash:

   cd ./labs/1_basics/1_01_and_or_not_xor_de_morgan/
   ./03_synthesize_for_fpga.bash

   If all goes well, you should see the LEDs on your board light up according to the example.

As long as you do not change your hardware, you only need to run 03_synthesize_for_fpga.bash script after the first time setup.

Windows

Examples are not fully compatible with a WSL. You're welcome to try at your own risk and peril. See documentation.

• Required: Download and install Git for Windows.
  • ⚠️ We recommend on the "Adjusting your PATH environment" step to select "Use Git and optional Unix tools from the Windows Command Prompt".
• Required: Bash: Compatibility is only verified with Bash installed as part of the Git for Windows package.
• Recommended: Download and install VScode

⚠️ Examples and scripts can only be run with a Git Bash terminal. There are mutliple different options to open it. Choose one that works best for you:

• Open Git Bash from the Start menu or from a right-click context menu in any folder (if you enabled it during installation).
• Alternatively, you can use VSCode:
  • Optionally: Set it as a default in Settings > Features > Terminal > Integrated > Default Profile > Windows > Git Bash.
  • Open a new Git Bash as a one-off by clikcing on the dropdown arrow next to the plus icon in the terminal panel and selecting Git Bash.

You can tell that it's a Git Bash terminal if you see a prompt that looks like this:

user@hostname MINGW64 /c/Users/user/Documents/basics-graphics-music/ (master)
$

Linux

You may need to install git if not alredy installed:

sudo apt-get install git

You can use any terminal including built-in.

macOS

No special stesps are required. You can use any terminal including built-in.

• Optional: If you hit issues with bash, you may have a version older than is currently supported. If so, you can use Homebrew's bash instead:

  brew install bash

Compatible Hardware

To support educators worldwide, we support a wide variety of hardware across all manufacturers and price ranges, with several dozen different variants in total. See ./boards for more information.

If you do not know where to start:

• Gowin SiPeed Tang Nano 9K is a solid and affordable starter board.

Supported Boards

🔧 Work in progress. Please, double-check information for your board online. Your contributions are welcome.

FPGA Chip	Board	Variants	Software
Altera Cyclone II	Terasic DE1	de1	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera Cyclone II	Terasic DE2	de2	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera Cyclone III	Terasic DE0	de0	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera Cyclone III	Altera DK-DEV-3C120N	dk_dev_3c120n	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera Cyclone IV	Alinx AX4010	alinx_ax4010	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera Cyclone IV	Terasic DE0-Nano	de0_nano_vga_pmod de0_nano_vga666	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera Cyclone IV	Zeowaa	zeowaa zeowaa_wo_dig_0
Altera Cyclone IV	Terasic DE2-115	de2_115	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera Cyclone V	Terasic DE0-CV	de0_cv	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera Cyclone V	Terasic DE10-Nano	de10_nano	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera Cyclone V SoC	Terasic DE0-Nano SoC	de0_nano_soc_vga_pmod de0_nano_soc_vga666	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera Cyclone V SoC	Terasic DE1-SoC	de1_soc	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera Cyclone V GX	Terasic C5GX	c5gx	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera MAX 10	Terasic DE10-Lite	de10_lite	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Emooc	CC	emooc_cc
Gowin GW5AST-LV138	SiPeed Tang Mega 138K	tang_mega_138k_lcd_480_272_tm1638 tang_mega_138k_pro_lcd_480_272_no_tm1638 tang_mega_138k_pro_lcd_480_272_tm1638	Gowin EDA
Gowin GW1NR-9	SiPeed Tang Nano 9K	tang_nano_9k_lcd_480_272_no_tm1638_yosys tang_nano_9k_lcd_480_272_tm1638 tang_nano_9k_lcd_480_272_tm1638_yosys tang_nano_9k_lcd_800_480_no_tm1638 tang_nano_9k_lcd_800_480_no_tm1638_yosys tang_nano_9k_lcd_800_480_tm1638 tang_nano_9k_lcd_800_480_tm1638_yosys tang_nano_9k_lcd_ml6485_no_tm1638_yosys tang_nano_9k_lcd_ml6485_tm1638_yosys	Gowin EDA Yosys
Gowin GW2A-LV18	SiPeed Tang Primer 20K	tang_primer_20k_dock_hdmi_no_tm1638 tang_primer_20k_dock_hdmi_tm1638 tang_primer_20k_dock_no_hdmi_no_tm1638 tang_primer_20k_dock_no_hdmi_tm1638 tang_primer_20k_lite	Gowin EDA
Gowin GW5A-LV25	SiPeed Tang Primer 25K	tang_primer_25k	Gowin EDA
Gowin GW12AR-18	Sipeed Tang Nano 20K	tang_nano_20k_hdmi_tm1638 tang_nano_20k_lcd_800_480_tm1638	Gowin EDA
Lattice ECP5	OrangeCrab	orangecrab_ecp5_yosys	Yosys
Lattice ECP5	Karnix	karnix_ecp5_yosys	Yosys
Lattice iCE40	Lattice iCE40-HX8K	ice40hx8k_evb_yosys	Yosys
Altera Cyclone IV	Omdazz	omdazz omdazz_pmod_mic3	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera Cyclone IV	Rzrd	rzrd rzrd_pmod_mic3	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Xilinx Artix-7	Arty A7	arty_a7 arty_a7_pmod_mic3	Vivado
Xilinx Artix-7	Basys 3	basys3	Vivado
Xilinx Artix-7	Nexys 4	nexys4	Vivado
Xilinx Artix-7	Nexys 4 DDR	nexys4_ddr	Vivado
Xilinx Artix-7	Nexys A7	nexys_a7	Vivado
Altera Cyclone IV	Pisword S6	piswords6	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Altera Cyclone IV	Saylinx	saylinx saylinx_pmod_mic3	Intel Quartus Prime Lite
Xilinx Kintex 7	QMTech Kintex 7	qmtech_kintex_7	Vivado
Xilinx Zynq-7000	Zybo Z7	zybo_z7	Vivado

External hardware

Not all boards include everything on the same board. To compensate for this we use external boards and hardware to extend input and output capabilities. The most common external hardware is:

• All variants: INMP441 I2S microphone
• Almost all variants: PCM5102 I2S stereo audio DAC. Some boards do not require an external DAC as they have an on-board DAC (Tang Nano 20K)
• tm1638 or no_tm1638: with and without TM1638: 8-digit 7-segment display with 8 buttons (enabled in tm1638 variants)
• hdmi: HDMI on-board output
• lcd_480_272: 40-pin 480x272 LCD display
• lcd_800_480: 40-pin 800x480 LCD display
• yosys: The same hardware, but uses Yosys open source toolchain instead of a proprietary one.

Verilog Events Across the World

This repository was used during the following events:

Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, California in 2024

ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2024

LaLambda 2023 in Tbilisi, Georgia

AUCA & Siemens EDA seminar in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in 2022

Школа синтеза цифровых схем / The School of Synthesis of the Digital Circuits, 2020