VLSI/FPGA Design P2-S3: Verilog for Design and Verification

Master Digital IC & FPGA Design: Verilog & Hardware Fundamentals

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to digital IC and FPGA design, equipping you with the essential knowledge and practical skills to succeed in this field. Learn Verilog and gain a deep understanding of the connection between circuit schematics, Verilog code, and waveforms. You'll develop the ability to analyze and understand designs even without complete documentation.

What You'll Learn:

• Digital IC & FPGA Design Flow: Understand the complete process from concept to implementation.
• Verilog Fundamentals: A quick review of essential Verilog syntax for design and verification.
• Tools Setup: Learn to install and use Verilator and GTKwave for simulation and waveform analysis.
• Combinational Logic Design: Design fundamental building blocks like basic gates, MUXes, decoders, and one-hot decoders.
• Sequential Logic Design: Master synchronous and asynchronous D flip-flops.
• Essential Digital Blocks: Design and implement useful modules including counters, edge detectors, shift registers, sequence checkers, and sync FIFOs.
• Finite State Machines (FSMs): Design and implement FSMs for controlling digital systems.
• Testbench Development: Learn to create effective testbenches for verifying your designs.
• Synthesis Best Practices: Avoid common synthesis mistakes like incomplete sensitive lists, latches, multi-driven nets, and combination logic loops.
• Hands-on Practice: Reinforce your learning with practical exercises, including designing and verifying a Z-scan and a complex sequence checker (FSM).

Course Structure:

This course is divided into multiple free sections, with each section building upon the previous one. It's Chapter 2, Section 3 of a complete course. We'll cover:

• Hardware Architecture: Explore fundamental hardware function blocks like FSMs, pipelines, arbiters, CDC, FIFOs (sync & async), ping-pong buffers, and systolic arrays.
• System-Level Concepts: Understand STA (Static Timing Analysis), on-chip buses (APB/AHB-Lite/AXI4), low-power design, DFT (Design for Testability), and SOC (System on a Chip) concepts (MCU level).

Projects:

Gain practical experience through three comprehensive projects:

• SHA-256 Algorithm Implementation: Implement the SHA-256 algorithm with a simple interface and with APB/AXI interfaces.
• 2D DMA Controller: Design a 2D DMA controller with APB/AXI interfaces.

Coding Exercises:

Each hardware architecture explanation is followed by a coding exercise, ranging in difficulty from a few lines to over 200 lines, culminating in a final project of 1000+ lines. Reference code will be provided.

What You'll Achieve:

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:

• Translate circuit schematics into Verilog code.
• Understand the relationship between Verilog code and waveforms.
• Analyze and debug digital designs.
• Apply Verilog to design and verify complex digital systems.

This course is designed for individuals looking to enter the field of digital IC and FPGA design. I’ll explain the what, how, and why behind each concept, encouraging you to develop your skills and become a proficient digital designer.

Learn more about each chapter on my Udemy homepage.