My Digital Systems I class used the DE0-Nano Cyclone IV as does the Digital Systems II class I'm taking now, so I was very excited to see him choose this one in particular! The dip-switches are actually really easy to switch despite being so tiny, we generally use an oscilloscope probe to push them into position.
I tried to start with FPGA programming, but didn't really get my head around it. I found the VHDPlus IDE and with the simple language, embedded libraries and other features it helped me a lot to make some cool projects :) Just in case someone has the same problem
i know im asking randomly but does someone know of a method to log back into an Instagram account?? I was dumb lost the login password. I would love any assistance you can give me!
@Alvin Leo thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site on google and Im in the hacking process now. Seems to take quite some time so I will get back to you later with my results.
I used to use that same software in Collage, I'm still in Collage but I passed that course, Also I used the last DE0 board that you showed, it is a great board and I had a lot of fun with it! FPGA are cool AF!
I just got a DE0 Nano ! I'm really excited to learn the software for it, I'ma breadboard with it first and then mess with a gameboy advance and hopefully do something cool w/ it
DE-10 Nano can be had for $150 with a Cyclone V (LOTS of gates) and a Arm SoC running Linux. You can write custom drivers in Linux for specialized hardware designs on the FPGA and interact with them in user code.
Interesting video! FPGAs are really great for those interesting in retro-computing or learning how a CPU works. I am implementing Ben Eater's 8-bit computer in an FPGA in a series of videos on my channel for anyone interested.
Have you made a behind the scenes video lately? I'd like to know what kind of equipment, programs and techniques you use from lighting, editing and shooting.
I have a question? Do you always have to connect your body through the probe to the earth, handling such circuit boards? Or it’s ok not to do so in some cases?
How much sensors can it handle? (Sensors i am including now are are such as flow, level, humidity sensor, temperature sensor). Is it appropriate to use as edge device for edge computing?
when you program the configuration device, are you actually transforming your FPGA into a programming device on Ram and then, using it to program the eeprom?
I am at the 4min mark at the moment but I want to note: Most softcores are royalty free, Altera and Xilinx which covers 90% of the market which has their software cores; NIOS2 and Microblaze are both royalty free. the hard processors (Most likely ARM) which is embedded into the newer families are also paid for by Altera and Xilinx themselves, once you buy the chip, you done need to spend anymore on it. what I think you meant is the IP cores pertaining to each vendor, now those may have licensing fees involved, softcore is a subset of IP cores. The other power supply rail that you missed is 1.2v, but also note that there are FPGAs now which offer single supply rail, the MAX10 which is by definition FPGA from Altera by has many features of a traditional CPLD has an option for supplying either 2.5v or 3.3v. Other company like Lattice has a special type of FPGA also has options for single supply rail to ease up on the complexity of power management. I will add as i go along.
At the 5min mark; about PLL, based on the current state of the art FPGA architectures, there is a limit to how fast output from the PLL. The characteristics are generally defined in the FPGA datasheet. However it is important to note that as higher clock frequencies are involved, the timing closure will start to play an important role in development so that the synthesized logic will meet the setup and hold time requirements, if you do not meet them then the system will be unreliable and exhibit metastability. As a rule of thumb for the lowest cost FPGA families; for 100MHz and above, the designer needs to be careful of their designs. 200MHz is considered high speed design, stuff like logic depth of combinational paths, high fanouts, etc etc are critical to make designs functionally possible. For low cost FPGA, the current frequency limit that you can clock the system is around the 300MHz region.
Finally the DE-NANO has a gotcha on it's schematic, it does not include the FTDI converter which handles the usb to Jtag streaming. And no it can definately not handle 500MHz-600MHz pll output clock frequency.
I'm making a custom low response time keyboard with extra hotkeys. would you say that an adruino would be fast enough to get the lowest latency also are there different voltages or resistances that need to be accounted for in a cherry mx vs a sanwa arecade button? - - - I just started prototyping the chassis so i want to get a hold on the internals before i get too far.
Element14 video player is horrible. Keep changing video resolution without my request and cannot set it to a stable resolution. I can't read anything from video. It's unwatchable. Please upload that video here.
With all of his vast knowledge, logical thinking and nigh on god-like inventive abilities I can only pay Ben the highest compliment that one geek can present to another: Ben a cross between StarTrek's 'Data' and 'Station' off of Bill and Ted's excellent adventure. very cool (and simultaneously disturbing) stuff is all the fpga malarkey :)
When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. - Google Terms of Service (Last Updated April 2014)
I have seen FPGAs on everyones favourite overseas supplier website *cough* starting at ~16US$ - you would have to replace a LOT and I mean a metric LOT of discrete logic to actually justify building your product with an FPGA instead of discrete logic. Is it really meant to replace discrete logic to cut costs or is it for applications where volume/weight reduction outweighs costs to a certain degree like aero- or astronautics?
I tried to watch the bonus content, but the player is terrible. Audio quality is bad, and at least on mobile there is no fullscreen option as far as I can tell. Meh. Never mind then.
+Joeri Noort u just tried and it does for me. Once you press play, on the far right of the play button next to the volume button there is a square Box like on a pc. Press that and turn your phone (un like your PC lol) and you'll get full screen. German? Strange, are you also running a vpn? If so that will be the reason. If not, that is strange. Unless your in Germany of course. But i doubt you would forget that. 😆
Hi Ben, this question might be a bit at the wrong place but do you like the delta 3d printer more then the standard x y z 3d printer ? Or do you think they are both good?
+Charlie90071 Ben currently prefers the XYZ printers he has, but not necessarily because of the way the head prints. The bed on the Orion is difficult to level because it doesn't have springs that allow you to vary how much you tighten the screws down on any side. So mostly he prefers the XYZ style because it is easier to calibrate.
It would be awesome if you could put your bonus content videos on UA-cam also. Streaming from the Element14 servers on my slow Australian internet connection is super flaky and doesn't work well.
I realize this is an older comment, but if you're still interested, I'd strongly suggest checking out eevblog's video on FPGAs. He explains it really well on the hardware level. It's easy to follow, too. Especially if you have some knowledge of logic gates and such. It was the first thing I ever watched or read on FPGAs and I had no trouble following it. In fact, I would strongly recommend eevblog in general if you're interested in electronics and want to know more. It's easily the best channel on electronics on UA-cam. I never would have gotten into electronics without it.
FPGAs also are very useful in electrically dangerous environments due to their durability, and they can also resist physical damage to the chip itself.
+PNathan I've worked with Altera's DE0 and Xilinx's Zynq while in school, and they're very capable devices when pipelining high speed algorithms. I ended up writing an NES core in VHDL by designing all the individual components like the Ricoh 2C02/2A03. If you're a hardware engineer, FPGA's are great for prototyping designs and learning hardware languages like VHDL and Verilog.
While the bonus content is a good idea it sadly seems your site is just not up to the task, constantly adjusting video quality due to lack of bandwidth and frequent stuttering, might I suggest uploading them to youtube instead, perhaps as unlisted.
that's a high end board! there are beginner boards beginning at 29$ or so. you have to keep in mind that FPGAs are very specialized devices. you'd find them in oscilloscopes and such stuff, but never in standard consumer stuff.
What you're creating isn't a program. Verilog isn't a programming language - it's an HDL - hardware descriptor language. Instead of compiling your code, it synthesizes it into a logic image. This image gets stored into the external ROM, which is read by the FPGA at boot time. The same synthesized image can be sent to an ASIC manufacturer to have custom chips made. an ASIC will be much faster than an FPGA
The Raspberry Pi runs operating systems and is not real time. If you need precise timing and you want to emulate a circuit, an FPGA can do it. There are plenty of writeups online (stack exchange) that explain the differences. Because the FPGA is hardware, you can't write a variable program loop. The amount of times you loop has to be fixed. There are still loops, but they must be fixed in size. FPGAs are in many devices where a processor would be too expensive and overkill to produce with. Think smart thermostats, home security systems, DVD player, etc.
+Steven Olsen makes sense. I have seen so many ARM-/Android-based media players in the recent years, so I though I'd ask. Apart from the easier/much more versatile programming of a Pi-like device, such an SoC also costs just a fraction of an FPGA devboard - so using an FPGA didn't seem like a good idea.
+trisymphony Ben didn't fully explain the extent to which FPGAs are "Faster." Some FPGAs run in the 25+ GHz range and ect. Due to their precise timings and no software overhead, Formula 1 race cars are all powered by FPGAs now.
I know this is quite a late comment, but It's worth mentioning the reason FPGA are so fast is not necessarily the fast clock (in fact an FPGA clk is usually pretty low), but it's because the FPGA can do a lot of things in parallel! All the blocks ben talks about (18:20) are basically Look-up tables that operate simultaneously.
You missed the main gigantic downside of FPGAs, the thing that pretty much wipes out their use whenever avoidable: they use the most horrifying packages, like BGA, and they have a ridiculous pin count.
The bonus content takes way tooo long to load and I'd like to see it. It's constantly stuttering and buffering forever. Can you just put it on youtube please?
PLD = basically a and-or construction with up to 10 outputs. CPLD = multiple PLDs on a chip (early) or several (32 to 100k) 16:1 muxes that can build any 4-input functions. FPGA = even larger CPLDs, generally based on Programmable muxes, but with common functions hardware included, like sram, multipliers, hard-core processors or fast communication cores (pcie, lvds).
Lips are Blue ? for goodness sake , is that ALL you got from this vid ? - BTW Blue was enhanced to show the components against the blue of the board imho !! - Thanks for the education Ben - love your work
chapstick is much more effective then human spit at dealing with chapped lips Ben! I was going to count the times you licked your lips but.. after the first 20 I got tired. Not hating, can tell you're not feeling well.. but its soooooo hard to not notice every time you lick your lips, just a heads up i suppose.
You should never compare FPGAs with uCs. They are completely different things, intended for different things and good at different things. Its like comparing a harddrive to SDRAM in terms of memory. Both store data, yet have completely different purposes.
Okay, a FPGA is faster. So, when I'd like to create an LED strip display with VGA/HDMI input, I'd interface it through an FPGA (since a microcontroller isn't fast enough to display, let's say 30Hz on a good quality?) Does this mean that FPGA's are like "videocards" and allow parallel execution? And microcontrollers are like processors, executing instructions lineair? But when will a microcontroller be better? There is a reason that we don't use videocards as a processor? (If you wouldn't bother about the costs/speed)
Felixes enthusiasm cannot be beaten.
+Lauren H. Dude, Felix is the man. He's too cool for the regrettable acting, yet he's been playing along to treat us with that magic Felix touch.
Indeed xD I love Felix. I'm glad he's part of the show.
I think he's just quiet, and uses it to his advantage to make a character out of it
Altera/Quartus was hell on earth back when I learned it in school. Glad to see thousands of internet viewers about to have the same struggle
Thought the same thing. I don't remember the name but I used the Quartus predecessor. It was horrific. Great to see that tradition carry over
Always happy to see new FPGA related episodes.
Brilliant. I think Ben Heck is the one able to explain things in a unique way. Easy and complete
Field programmable Gatorade? :D :D
that alyson reference, thou XD
+tomstr21 Mmm, Gatorade..
+Clifton M Oh, so EMFCamp then?
Welcome back to the 1990s ;-P
114 individuals approve your stupidity.
My Digital Systems I class used the DE0-Nano Cyclone IV as does the Digital Systems II class I'm taking now, so I was very excited to see him choose this one in particular! The dip-switches are actually really easy to switch despite being so tiny, we generally use an oscilloscope probe to push them into position.
@10:17
Karen: ... this episode has bonus content! 😍
Felix: that's freakin' awesome 😐
what's with the blue lip sign of imminent death thingie?
+paul gheorghe Thank you! I noticed this as well, I wonder if he has a cold, you can see around his eyes too. Although it could be some poor lighting.
he's an Illuminati robot, and his batteries were low
Ben's just an alien trying to teach humans the joy of electronics, a technology now ancient to his race.
OMG Thank you TBHS, you listened to us :D
You're finally doing the Gamboy Console (The GameMan).
RE: Bonus content
I tried to start with FPGA programming, but didn't really get my head around it.
I found the VHDPlus IDE and with the simple language, embedded libraries and other features it helped me a lot to make some cool projects :)
Just in case someone has the same problem
Awesome Ben Heck! Pretty good FPGA tutorial! Congratulations! See you in next time!
i know im asking randomly but does someone know of a method to log back into an Instagram account??
I was dumb lost the login password. I would love any assistance you can give me!
@Dante Asher Instablaster :)
@Alvin Leo thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site on google and Im in the hacking process now.
Seems to take quite some time so I will get back to you later with my results.
@Alvin Leo It worked and I actually got access to my account again. I'm so happy:D
Thanks so much you saved my ass!
@Dante Asher No problem :D
The bonus content is worth the watch.
I used to use that same software in Collage, I'm still in Collage but I passed that course, Also I used the last DE0 board that you showed, it is a great board and I had a lot of fun with it! FPGA are cool AF!
I just got a DE0 Nano ! I'm really excited to learn the software for it, I'ma breadboard with it first and then mess with a gameboy advance and hopefully do something cool w/ it
"I am the internet troll."
"BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!!!!1!!"
I miss these.
Thank you for taking the time to make this video.
DE-10 Nano can be had for $150 with a Cyclone V (LOTS of gates) and a Arm SoC running Linux. You can write custom drivers in Linux for specialized hardware designs on the FPGA and interact with them in user code.
Where's the Field Programmable Gatorade?
If someone like to learn basics in FPGA. I would recommend EDGE Spartan 6 FPGA board.
Interesting video! FPGAs are really great for those interesting in retro-computing or learning how a CPU works. I am implementing Ben Eater's 8-bit computer in an FPGA in a series of videos on my channel for anyone interested.
do you have a play list
Have you made a behind the scenes video lately? I'd like to know what kind of equipment, programs and techniques you use from lighting, editing and shooting.
I was literally looking for this the other day.
***** Literally.
Mate, you look how I feel, and I have flu. You've just made me realise that even UA-cam fellas have to go into work ill sometimes too.
I have a question? Do you always have to connect your body through the probe to the earth, handling such circuit boards? Or it’s ok not to do so in some cases?
That is a magnificent dome. The information here is also great.
How much sensors can it handle? (Sensors i am including now are are such as flow, level, humidity sensor, temperature sensor). Is it appropriate to use as edge device for edge computing?
Ben don't die on us alright? We love your show.
Nice tutorial. However, can't you just start with a new program and make a simple blinking LED?
thats pretty hard
Do you have a blue blocker on your new glasses?
when you program the configuration device, are you actually transforming your FPGA into a programming device on Ram and then, using it to program the eeprom?
I am at the 4min mark at the moment but I want to note: Most softcores are royalty free, Altera and Xilinx which covers 90% of the market which has their software cores; NIOS2 and Microblaze are both royalty free. the hard processors (Most likely ARM) which is embedded into the newer families are also paid for by Altera and Xilinx themselves, once you buy the chip, you done need to spend anymore on it. what I think you meant is the IP cores pertaining to each vendor, now those may have licensing fees involved, softcore is a subset of IP cores. The other power supply rail that you missed is 1.2v, but also note that there are FPGAs now which offer single supply rail, the MAX10 which is by definition FPGA from Altera by has many features of a traditional CPLD has an option for supplying either 2.5v or 3.3v. Other company like Lattice has a special type of FPGA also has options for single supply rail to ease up on the complexity of power management. I will add as i go along.
At the 5min mark; about PLL, based on the current state of the art FPGA architectures, there is a limit to how fast output from the PLL. The characteristics are generally defined in the FPGA datasheet. However it is important to note that as higher clock frequencies are involved, the timing closure will start to play an important role in development so that the synthesized logic will meet the setup and hold time requirements, if you do not meet them then the system will be unreliable and exhibit metastability. As a rule of thumb for the lowest cost FPGA families; for 100MHz and above, the designer needs to be careful of their designs. 200MHz is considered high speed design, stuff like logic depth of combinational paths, high fanouts, etc etc are critical to make designs functionally possible. For low cost FPGA, the current frequency limit that you can clock the system is around the 300MHz region.
Finally the DE-NANO has a gotcha on it's schematic, it does not include the FTDI converter which handles the usb to Jtag streaming. And no it can definately not handle 500MHz-600MHz pll output clock frequency.
Awesome! Bonus content is great!
I'm making a custom low response time keyboard with extra hotkeys. would you say that an adruino would be fast enough to get the lowest latency also are there different voltages or resistances that need to be accounted for in a cherry mx vs a sanwa arecade button?
-
-
-
I just started prototyping the chassis so i want to get a hold on the internals before i get too far.
Hey Ben, what kind of FPGA can I use/program on a Mac OSX system? And wy do I need to use ADOBE Flash for the bonus content?
Element14 video player is horrible. Keep changing video resolution without my request and cannot set it to a stable resolution. I can't read anything from video. It's unwatchable. Please upload that video here.
Hi Ben,
Could you talk about this board "PICPLC16 v6 PLC System" how is it use and what the pos and cons ?
11:00 song ? pls
Very nice content. Good work. Excellent explanations.
You need Adobe Flash to watch the bonus content, but it's 2016 so i don't have that :(
With all of his vast knowledge, logical thinking and nigh on god-like inventive abilities I can only pay Ben the highest compliment that one geek can present to another:
Ben a cross between StarTrek's 'Data' and 'Station' off of Bill and Ted's excellent adventure.
very cool (and simultaneously disturbing) stuff is all the fpga malarkey :)
FPGAs for the WIN!!!
Random! I got a eurorack synthesizer module yesterday (Intellijel Cyclonix Shapeshifter) that has a cyclone of these on the back. of it.
Also, a CPLD is an instant on device. There is no EEPROM that programs it on power up.
When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. - Google Terms of Service (Last Updated April 2014)
Thanks for the great vid. I am working on a project of my own that can use this.
Felix is always so unimpressed lmao
+Josh Barrett He's seen too much already. The worldly concerns rarely surprise him in this era.
I have seen FPGAs on everyones favourite overseas supplier website *cough* starting at ~16US$ - you would have to replace a LOT and I mean a metric LOT of discrete logic to actually justify building your product with an FPGA instead of discrete logic. Is it really meant to replace discrete logic to cut costs or is it for applications where volume/weight reduction outweighs costs to a certain degree like aero- or astronautics?
I tried to watch the bonus content, but the player is terrible. Audio quality is bad, and at least on mobile there is no fullscreen option as far as I can tell. Meh. Never mind then.
Turn your phone 90° to landscape for fullscreen.
+Stephen Butler Nope. doest work on Chrome for Android. Also it's serving the site in German now. I'll stick to Ben's YT content.
+Joeri Noort u just tried and it does for me. Once you press play, on the far right of the play button next to the volume button there is a square Box like on a pc. Press that and turn your phone (un like your PC lol) and you'll get full screen.
German? Strange, are you also running a vpn? If so that will be the reason. If not, that is strange. Unless your in Germany of course. But i doubt you would forget that. 😆
+Joeri Noort Curious! Could there be a problem with your 'net connection? It should change its rate and playback automatically based on it.
+The Ben Heck Show having issues with bonus content
Hi Ben, this question might be a bit at the wrong place but do you like the delta 3d printer more then the standard x y z 3d printer ? Or do you think they are both good?
+Charlie90071 Ben currently prefers the XYZ printers he has, but not necessarily because of the way the head prints. The bed on the Orion is difficult to level because it doesn't have springs that allow you to vary how much you tighten the screws down on any side. So mostly he prefers the XYZ style because it is easier to calibrate.
Oh didnt know that, thanks Karen!
You're very welcome!
why did u guys do an episode on the women's professional golf?
ben... you are my hero.
It would be awesome if you could put your bonus content videos on UA-cam also. Streaming from the Element14 servers on my slow Australian internet connection is super flaky and doesn't work well.
+Adam Tow We're getting our dev team to figure out a way to speed up the video playback. Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks Ben, I never understood FPGA.
I realize this is an older comment, but if you're still interested, I'd strongly suggest checking out eevblog's video on FPGAs. He explains it really well on the hardware level. It's easy to follow, too. Especially if you have some knowledge of logic gates and such. It was the first thing I ever watched or read on FPGAs and I had no trouble following it. In fact, I would strongly recommend eevblog in general if you're interested in electronics and want to know more. It's easily the best channel on electronics on UA-cam. I never would have gotten into electronics without it.
@@VoidHalo I know this is also an old comment, but EEVBlog is carrying me to an EE degree
it would be interesting to see a fpga drive smd rgb leds for a high res POV display. great videos btw!
please anyone help me with the FPGA UART interface using vhdl...
FPGAs also are very useful in electrically dangerous environments due to their durability, and they can also resist physical damage to the chip itself.
That's definitely not an FPGA property. You might have seen e.g. Actel chips in this capacity because they make radiation hardened ones.
Wow this might be worth using to create a SDR don't you think.
what can you Arduino with built FPGA; MKR vidor 4000
We started using the Altera DE2-155 in school and it's pretty insane. Anyone who has experience with them and what did you make with it?
+PNathan I've worked with Altera's DE0 and Xilinx's Zynq while in school, and they're very capable devices when pipelining high speed algorithms. I ended up writing an NES core in VHDL by designing all the individual components like the Ricoh 2C02/2A03. If you're a hardware engineer, FPGA's are great for prototyping designs and learning hardware languages like VHDL and Verilog.
Jonathan Ganyer Very nice :) I'm studying Embedded Systems & Automation and I'm loving every part of it!
im doing it now just started something
Great video. Subscribed!
23:06 - Yes, it’ll be based on the Terasic DE10-nano 💀
I love Felix, at the end especially.. :D
How is (Z80-CPU) in PI ???!!
i can't see the bonus content on the smartphone, it won't ler me click on the link :(
+guilherme pontes Check the description or the card, the link is there too!
+The Ben Heck Show Thanks!
While the bonus content is a good idea it sadly seems your site is just not up to the task, constantly adjusting video quality due to lack of bandwidth and frequent stuttering, might I suggest uploading them to youtube instead, perhaps as unlisted.
Hey Ben, can you try to make a wii u pro controller a xbox one controller?
Can it do hardcore?
isn't a 8 bit output 255 to 0 not 7 to 0?. correct me if i am wrong?
With 8 bits you can get values in the range of 255 to 0. The individual 8 bits are numbered 7 to 0.
Let's substitute "The Ben Heck Show" with "Ben's Element14 Commercial Show"... That would be a better fit...
7:05 WOW only $810 USD that's about $1,126 Canadian. I think I'll stick to Micro-Controllers until I need to sell a $10,000 product.
that's a high end board! there are beginner boards beginning at 29$ or so. you have to keep in mind that FPGAs are very specialized devices. you'd find them in oscilloscopes and such stuff, but never in standard consumer stuff.
Bonus content button not working... :-)
Is this board programmed using VHDL?
you can also use verilog. those are just languages, the synthesizer creates the bitstream for the fpga
how does a program set changes in hardware
What you're creating isn't a program. Verilog isn't a programming language - it's an HDL - hardware descriptor language. Instead of compiling your code, it synthesizes it into a logic image. This image gets stored into the external ROM, which is read by the FPGA at boot time. The same synthesized image can be sent to an ASIC manufacturer to have custom chips made. an ASIC will be much faster than an FPGA
1:15 Last chance to look at me Hector
clicked on bonus content and the element14 website and it is requesting flash to view the video....are you serious!!!!!!!!
I hate when volume is cranked up to the max possible without clipping, and min volume is too high on mobile
"the juice of sapho gives my thoughts speed"
Are there also some non intel FPGA's as there ide suc…
I always thought that element14 is an electronics shop. They say it is a community 🤔
What happend to the guy who replaced Alison.
@1:27
He just licks his lips... for a few mins...
Hopefully Intel will enable the multi core compilation on the free version of Quartus II and make FPGA programming fun.
What's the benefit of using an FPGA vs a Pi 2?
The Raspberry Pi runs operating systems and is not real time. If you need precise timing and you want to emulate a circuit, an FPGA can do it. There are plenty of writeups online (stack exchange) that explain the differences. Because the FPGA is hardware, you can't write a variable program loop. The amount of times you loop has to be fixed. There are still loops, but they must be fixed in size. FPGAs are in many devices where a processor would be too expensive and overkill to produce with. Think smart thermostats, home security systems, DVD player, etc.
+Steven Olsen makes sense. I have seen so many ARM-/Android-based media players in the recent years, so I though I'd ask. Apart from the easier/much more versatile programming of a Pi-like device, such an SoC also costs just a fraction of an FPGA devboard - so using an FPGA didn't seem like a good idea.
+trisymphony Ben didn't fully explain the extent to which FPGAs are "Faster." Some FPGAs run in the 25+ GHz range and ect. Due to their precise timings and no software overhead, Formula 1 race cars are all powered by FPGAs now.
I know this is quite a late comment, but It's worth mentioning the reason FPGA are so fast is not necessarily the fast clock (in fact an FPGA clk is usually pretty low), but it's because the FPGA can do a lot of things in parallel! All the blocks ben talks about (18:20) are basically Look-up tables that operate simultaneously.
CMOS next?
You missed the main gigantic downside of FPGAs, the thing that pretty much wipes out their use whenever avoidable: they use the most horrifying packages, like BGA, and they have a ridiculous pin count.
The bonus content takes way tooo long to load and I'd like to see it. It's constantly stuttering and buffering forever. Can you just put it on youtube please?
+dark2koneko We're talking with our dev team to find a solution. Thanks for your patience.
PLD = basically a and-or construction with up to 10 outputs. CPLD = multiple PLDs on a chip (early) or several (32 to 100k) 16:1 muxes that can build any 4-input functions. FPGA = even larger CPLDs, generally based on Programmable muxes, but with common functions hardware included, like sram, multipliers, hard-core processors or fast communication cores (pcie, lvds).
Lips are Blue ? for goodness sake , is that ALL you got from this vid ? - BTW Blue was enhanced to show the components against the blue of the board imho !! - Thanks for the education Ben - love your work
tonight on the haunting of meetloaf
Zero errors and 147 warnings.... But it compiled!
Felix at the end made me laugh ☺
You can get soft core IP from Altera for free as long as you buy there chips.
thanks.
Three voltages are required: 3.3, 1.8, and ... I forgot... Ooops!
next time Ben makes homemade Valtrex
chapstick is much more effective then human spit at dealing with chapped lips Ben! I was going to count the times you licked your lips but.. after the first 20 I got tired. Not hating, can tell you're not feeling well.. but its soooooo hard to not notice every time you lick your lips, just a heads up i suppose.
You should never compare FPGAs with uCs. They are completely different things, intended for different things and good at different things. Its like comparing a harddrive to SDRAM in terms of memory. Both store data, yet have completely different purposes.
and functionality. you can't even use and program them the same way (except a custom mcu in the fpga...)
need a flash chip also.
what is a fpga
Okay, a FPGA is faster. So, when I'd like to create an LED strip display with VGA/HDMI input, I'd interface it through an FPGA (since a microcontroller isn't fast enough to display, let's say 30Hz on a good quality?)
Does this mean that FPGA's are like "videocards" and allow parallel execution? And microcontrollers are like processors, executing instructions lineair?
But when will a microcontroller be better? There is a reason that we don't use videocards as a processor? (If you wouldn't bother about the costs/speed)