[Coco] FPGA VS Software Emulators

[James Ross]

outlook.live.com sent a draft of my message, instead of my final edited message ... here it is again. 

I share your desire to learn FPGA programming, Zambotti!!

I've read just enough articles and blogs that I think I have a good grasp of the top level "understanding" of FPGA's.  But that is all it is. Just a top-level overview. 

I was introduced to the concept back in 1998 when I worked w/ a hardware engineer on a project that I was working on the software for and he used GALS and/or PALS - the programmable logic chips of the day.  Which I think today have been mainly replaced w/ CPLDs.  But I didn't really understand what was really going on, I just read the I/O that was given to me, in the software.

Now I want to learn and understand the low-level stuff and how it all works at the logic signal / clock / gate level.  Sort of like learning to program in BASIC first and then picking up Assembly / Machine Language later. 

I want to learn the underlying digital theory and building blocks of what makes up complex digital circuits.  I'd like to understand the schematics and operation starting at the level of the 74xx series and the common block operations that can be built from them.   

I would like to build some simple circuits w/ real physical chips and understand the logic of what is going on. How to read the schematics of the circuits and then implement the same simple circuits in FPGA code (both Verilog and VHDL).  With enough of these experiments, I could start to understand how to piece more complex circuits together (like the CPU / RAM / GIME / peripheral input output devices / etc) and how you connect these separate blocks together inside the FPGA, just as if they were physical chips.     

Start w/ the very basics and progress up to the complexity of emulating the CoCo.  

If I ever find the time ... 

James

________________________________________
From: James Ross <jrosslist at outlook.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2017 8:22 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] FPGA VS Software Emulators

I share your desire to learn FPGA programming, Zambotti!!

I've read enough articles and blogs that I think I have a good grasp of the top level "understanding" of FPGA's.  But now I want to learn and understand the low-level stuff and how it all works at the logic signal / clock / gate level.  Sort of like learning to program in BASIC first and then picking up assembly language later.

I was introduced to the concept back in 1998 when I worked w/ a hardware engineer on a project that I was doing the software for and he used GALS and/or PALS - the programmable logic chips of the day.  Which I think today have been mainly replaced w/ CPLDs.

Now I want to learn the underlying digital theory and building blocks of what makes up complex digital circuits.  I'd like to understand the schematics and operation starting at the level of 74xx series and common block operations that can be built from them.

I would like to actually build the simple circuits w/ real physical chips  / understand the logic of what is going on, how to read the schematics of the circuits and then implement the same simple circuits in FPGA code (both Verilog and VHDL).  Then which enough of these,

If I ever find the time -- I would like to create a series of blogs / lessons that start w/ the very basics and progresses up to the complexity of emulating the CoCo.

________________________________________
From: Coco <coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com> on behalf of Walter Zambotti <zambotti at iinet.net.au>
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2017 6:54 AM
To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts'
Subject: Re: [Coco] FPGA VS Software Emulators

Where did all of you learn your FPGA programming skills?

You have really sparked my interest!

I've been coding and developing for nearly forty years and I'm wondering if this is something I could pick up .

Would the code (do you call it so?) for the FPGA projects be understandable to a regular coder like myself?

Or would I need to start on something much simpler and work up to something like these CoCo FPGA projects.

Walter