Fpga-Based System Design
Everything FPGA designers need to know about FPGAs and VLSI
Digital designs once built in custom silicon are increasingly implemented in field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Effective FPGA system design requires a strong understanding of VLSI issues and constraints, and an understanding of the latest FPGA-specific techniques. In this book, Princeton University's Wayne Wolf covers everything FPGA designers need to know about all these topics: both the "how" and the "why."
Wolf begins by introducing the essentials of VLSI: fabrication, circuits, interconnects, combinational and sequential logic design, system architectures, and more. Next, he demonstrates how to reflect this VLSI knowledge in a state-of-the-art design methodology that leverages FPGA's most valuable characteristics while mitigating its limitations. Coverage includes:
- How VLSI characteristics affect FPGAs and FPGA-based logic design
- How classical logic design techniques relate to FPGA-based logic design
- Understanding FPGA fabrics: the basic programmable structures of FPGAs
- Specifying and optimizing logic to address size, speed, and power consumption
- Verilog, VHDL, and software tools for optimizing logic and designs
- The structure of large digital systems, including register-transfer design methodology
- Building large-scale platform and multi-FPGA systems
- A start-to-finish DSP case study addressing a wide range of design problems
PRENTICE HALL
Professional Technical Reference
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
www.phptr.com
ISBN: 0-13-142461-0
Why Read This Book
You should read this book if you want a system-level perspective on how VLSI principles affect FPGA designs and how to translate algorithms and architectures into reliable FPGA implementations. It combines solid theory (fabrication, circuits, interconnect) with practical guidance on memory, I/O, timing, and FPGA-aware optimizations so you can make better architectural tradeoffs.
Who Will Benefit
Hardware and system designers, advanced students, and embedded/DSP engineers who already know basic digital design and want to design robust, high-performance FPGA-based systems.
Level: Intermediate — Prerequisites: Basic digital logic and computer architecture; familiarity with Verilog or VHDL and basic timing concepts is strongly recommended.
Key Takeaways
- Analyze FPGA architecture and VLSI constraints to make architecture-level tradeoffs.
- Design and optimize memory and interconnect structures for FPGA implementations.
- Implement high-performance I/O and interface protocols with FPGA-aware techniques.
- Map DSP and algorithmic workloads efficiently onto FPGA resources.
- Apply timing, clocking, and placement-aware strategies to meet performance goals.
- Integrate system-level considerations (power, test, and verification) into FPGA projects.
Topics Covered
- Introduction: FPGAs and System Design
- VLSI Basics: Processes, Devices, and Interconnect
- Combinational and Sequential Logic in FPGAs
- FPGA Architectures and Technology Trends
- Timing, Clocking, and Synchronization
- Memory Systems and On-Chip Storage
- Interconnect, Buses, and On-Chip Communication
- I/O, Interfaces, and Board-Level Considerations
- FPGA-Based DSP: Algorithms and Implementations
- System-Level Design Methodologies and Tradeoffs
- CAD Tools, Synthesis, and Place-and-Route
- Testing, Debugging, and Validation
- Case Studies and Example Designs
Languages, Platforms & Tools
How It Compares
More system- and VLSI-focused than hands-on board-level guides like Pong Chu's "FPGA Prototyping"; complements vendor-specific texts and tool tutorials by emphasizing architecture and tradeoffs rather than step-by-step tool flows.
