From Arduino to FPGA: Synthesizing hardware from code!
Justin Silver · 2020
Presentation slides for the July 31st, 2020 Monthly Mini Hacks webinar hosted by the Surrey Reproducibility Society. In this talk, how to blink an LED (the hardware equivalent of "Hello, World!") is first explored with the Arduino ecosystem, and then with an FPGA development board. Brief introductions are given for both of these technologies and a lengthier discussion about digital logic and basic logic gates is included. The Arduino is programmed with its proper language and the FPGA is coded using VHDL. A structural coding approach is taken for the FPGA, where functional components are connected and the associated blinking circuit is explained. The goal of the presentation was to bring forth two drastically different methods for completing the task at hand. Whereas a very high level and sequential mindset is required when coding the Arduino, FPGA design demands the programmer to think in terms of hardware. Note: For reader clarity, the slides have been slightly modified from those presented on July 31st, 2020.