By on October 13, 2014

Since a lot of people were out last week, I’ll be covering this class again.

We finished creating the new FIFO backed RX module. This class we will spend a lot of time playing around in the simulator. We will be creating procedures to send test data as well as read data from the FIFO.

The slides for the upcoming and previous classes can be found here. The slides are generally made during the three days before a class.

Agenda:
1. Overview of last class
2. Create simple test bench
3. Explain how processes work in test benches
4. Use a process to simulate a serial transmitter
5. Add on to the process to remove data from FIFO
6. Create procedure to send one byte of data
7. Replace dummy TX code with procedure calls
8. Create procedure to pop one byte off the FIFO and check it’s value

If you would like to join the class, then please E-Mail fpga@unallocatedspace.org. The class is now to a point where you need to know VHDL prior to joining. We also stream the class on Google Hangouts. Please send an E-Mail to fpga@unallocatedspace.org if you would like to join the Google Hangout.

IMPORTANT You MUST have ISE (not Vivado!) installed prior to the start of class!!! ISE can take upwards of 30 minutes to an hour to install. We will not have time to wait for ISE to be installed. Please go to here and download the ISE Design Suite package for your operating system. If you have licensing or installation issues, please contact fpga@unallocatedspace.org

Required Items:
1. FPGA development board with Spartan 3 or Spartan 6
2. USB cable for programming
3. JTAG programmer if your board does not have USB
4. Laptop with ISE installed and either wired or wireless network connectivity

Provided Items:
1. None

We have been given ‘academic’ status from Digilent Inc (http://www.digilentinc.com). This means that the instructor can (sometimes) purchase boards from Digilent at the academic price. This discount will only apply to people who are attending the class regularly and is on a case-by-case basis from Digilent.

Since Unallocated Space runs off of donations, we would like to mention that the recommended donation for this class is $5. It is by no means a requirement! Attendance to the space, and this class, is 100% free to all!


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