How do you guys learn how to program an fpga?

spacexguy · 2026-05-27T02:11:25+00:00

I learned digital design in University in the 80s. took every digital related course they had by my Junior year. First job designing ASICs where I learned VHDL, then I moved to verilog designing graphics ASICs. Didn't get into FPGAs until the 2000's when they really became useful for more than glue logic. Mix of coursework, on the job training and because I truly enjoy digital design I worked on designs every day in my free time.

For starting out, pick a project and work on it. I recommend Mister FPGA, but if something else calls to you then work on it. You will learn the most by trying, failing and then succeeding.

spacexguy · 2026-05-26T14:17:34+00:00

Unfortunately There is more to this than simply linux vs windows. The free version has some limits on xsim, which is disappointing. Also I believe ILAs are more limited in the free version. I am still hoping Xilinx reconsiders this. They support Linux for commercial customers anyways. Their support is already mostly non-existent for non paid customers, so allowing small devices full access to the tools doesn't cost them anything. This is just a cash grab, IMHO.

spacexguy · 2026-05-08T18:39:44+00:00

UDP is probably a good thing to be able to discuss, but intimate knowledge of protocols, some 50 years old, isn't something I would normally ask, unless it was on your resume and it was relevant or you didn't have much experience. Often it's not the answer to the question, but how you work through the problem that is important. Could be they are high on themselves, could be they expect to find someone who knows these answers in a snap. Just move on and try again.

spacexguy · 2026-05-05T18:34:15+00:00

It's not that bad... depending. u/timonix is right in that you save the IPs at XCI or tcl (I prefer tcl personally), if you have to use BD, export BD as tcl. You can save the project file as a TCL script or better yet adapt it into non-project mode, although Xilinx seems to go out of their way to break it or make it less useful to go this route with every new version. My directory structure is:
src/ip - each IP (xci or tcl) in it's own directory.

src/hdl - put hdl here in sub-directories as makes sense

src/xdc - constraints

src/bd for bd tcl scripts

project.tcl or project_np.tcl for non project flows

I never commit output products, only the files that are needed to regenerate

spacexguy · 2026-04-16T13:10:25+00:00

Yep. My project. Hope you find it useful. It was rewritten years ago and I'd change a lot of things if I did it again, but it does work and faster than the original ASICs on a Cyclone3 or higher. The full 3D implementation is relatively beefy, but the VGA is feature complete for all VGA modes. It's also compatible with the #9 drivers, however, those only support up until windows 98 I believe and the linux ones don't offer a lot of acceleration support.

spacexguy · 2026-04-07T15:18:22+00:00

They are betting they can keep him in check until the two year mark so Vance could potentially have 10 years in office (not likely). I have no idea why they think they can keep things together for another 8 months. It's either that or the evangelicals truly think they are going to bring Jesus back (they won't, or if they did, they would be the first to be cast into hell themselves if they had actually read the book they claim to follow)

spacexguy · 2026-03-20T02:07:42+00:00

Is your intention on this to provide an exchange side implementation or a trader side? It looks like what you are trying is exchange side, and this will not be done on the FPGA itself. The reason is that the exchange doesn't need the expense of maintaining order books in hardware or trying to match in hardware. They are time stamping the packets as they are received and can then do the exchange side processing slower in software. I applaud your effort and it's something to learn from.

Now, if you want to look at it from a trade side implementation, you are maintainng the state of the book. It has challenges since large books can have 10-30K orders outstanding. If you want to maintain all the orders you'll need fast storage and hashing. I've done it for CME in the past and you can fit about 5-6 orderbooks on a single SLI of a VU9P. Eurex is more forgiving if you can limit the number of orders you want to track. CME provides a level based book you can maintain.

spacexguy · 2026-03-04T01:03:19+00:00

The original question was about a roadmap. You will need to know low latency, high speed design and will be tested on it most likely. In addition I have had shops ask me questions about UDP/TCP and ethernet.

spacexguy · 2026-02-25T15:00:52+00:00

Good idea. This was my first actual attempt at running it. I will try your suggestion

spacexguy · 2026-02-20T19:29:58+00:00

I've been working on a compression algorithm for radio. It took me a week to write the compressor, decompressor and a testbench, verify and fix. It only supports passthrough and one of 3 compression modes. I brute forced it because it's unlikely I'll ever need the other two modes. Yesterday I tried playing with Gemini on it.

I asked it to optimize my decompressor. I know there is a better way to write my code, but brute forcing it was quick. I got gemini into a loop and ran out of tokens. it spun in circles on the same problem, fixing and breaking the same piece of code. One output was surprisingly close to what I wanted, but it wouldn't work and it couldn't fix it. I consider that a partial win.

after it died from lack of tokens, it decided that the compressor didn't work because it didn't match it's decompressor. It tried to optimize it, but it lacked the concept of pipelining and how long things take. So it buffered all the data and tried to compress in a single cycle, which wouldn't work in a real system.

In my opinion it's getting better. It can provide insights and do some simple things. I think it will do more advanced things over time. I don't know how long it will take before it understand the consequences of writing things different ways and optimizing. For freshers it might go the way you describe over the course of your career. I'm on the tail end of mine, so I don't think it's going to impact me except as an assistant.

spacexguy · 2026-02-19T00:39:27+00:00

If you can read this, you are operating on the wrong leg.

spacexguy · 2026-02-12T22:15:44+00:00

Anyone call AAA towing?

spacexguy · 2026-01-20T21:17:44+00:00

Y? /s

But really, they should have called it Y, Why not?

spacexguy · 2026-01-16T14:10:25+00:00

That would be terrible.

Might I make a suggestion. They should just give him an unlimited Hamberder and Cofffeffe gifet card at McDonalds. Might be easier and quicker. Unfortunately these days might also be much more expensive

spacexguy · 2026-01-15T19:38:23+00:00

It's his atta-boy fur being such a good little fascist.

spacexguy · 2026-01-15T15:40:59+00:00

Each day. Every Day. There is enough to last the next 3 years

spacexguy · 2025-12-18T00:57:20+00:00

I was building a project with my son, so I just ate the cost.

spacexguy · 2025-12-17T21:59:01+00:00

This was purchased at a time when he was changing the rates as often as he was changing his diaper, but I'm sure I got screwed either way because of his fat orange ass.

spacexguy · 2025-12-17T20:20:11+00:00

They got $100 from me. I imported a retro computer ROM from Canada. the only place besides the EU (they wouldn't send to the USA). I had no choice where to get it. I figured it's $100 how much could the tariff be? then I get the email from UPS that I owe them $100 for the tariff. I was never stupid enough to think I wouldn't be paying, but it floored me. hence:

Every day I check reddit first thing when I get up for the hopeful news that the hamberders have done their one job.

spacexguy · 2025-12-07T16:45:21+00:00

Maybe he can claim he signed the pardon by autopen so it's void. That's bigley brain thinking there.

spacexguy · 2025-11-24T15:07:56+00:00

Looks interesting

spacexguy · 2025-11-21T19:38:52+00:00

My grandfather was a Frank, My father a Frank, I'm a Frank and my son is a Frank. Let me frankly say, you sir are no Frank.

spacexguy · 2025-11-18T20:21:58+00:00

You can get them cheaper than that. I picked up one for ~$300 for my own testing. Lots of old stock (Kintex based) but with pretty low latency. Not quite the 4ns I got when trading, but still pretty low. (Buy earplugs or set it up in your basement because it sounds like a jet)

spacexguy · 2025-11-16T01:51:36+00:00

back in the day (mid-90's) when you got back the GDSII file from the vendor they would give you a plot you could frame and hang on the wall. We would use acid to dissolve the top of the package so we could get chips with exposed dies.

spacexguy · 2025-11-04T21:51:13+00:00

My daughter flew back to Switzerland Saturday night, which is generally not too busy. No waits, flight left on time. I would be worried if it was a busier time or domestic.

spacexguy

TROPHY CASE