Beginners hardware programming course in Vhdl
I am a retired electronic technician that worked in Silicon Valley. One of the companies I worked for made an emulator box that was full of Fpga's. I used a test program to troubleshoot the emulators, but I never got to program them in Vhdl code. A couple of months ago I bought an Udemy course that used a $30.00 Fpga trainer board, to program an Fpga. Even though the course was made for beginners, it was confusing, but I was able to figure it out in a few days and programmed a few circuits. I thought to myself, I could make a beginner course that is more understandable. That is what I tried to do in my first video lesson. The process of making a video is new for me and I am still learning how to do it.
Even though I have a lot more video work to do, I would like to tell you why I think my course is better. The course that I took showed how Arduino projects would work with Vhdl code. Fpga's are not about copying computer code, it is about programming hardware circuits. The first thing that a beginner needs to know before writing hardware code is how the circuit works. That part was left out of the course that I took. I figure if you have to teach hardware before you program it, you might as well teach something important. The circuits I choose to use are the circuits that are used in a basic computer system. Starting with the simplest I programmed a - and gate, or gate, binary counter, binary to decimal decoder, program counter, register, rom, ram, 8x8 display using shift registers, 8x8 display using a ram, 7 segment 0 to f hex display, 4 bit ALU, D flip-flop, 4 bit multiplexer, and a computer timing and control circuit. All of those circuits can be tested using press switches, dipswitches, and Leds on the Fpga development board. Designing test benches for testing is too hard for beginners. At the end of my Udemy course the students will not only know something about Vhdl code, they will know something about hardware computer circuits.
James Buchanan
Please let me know what you think about this course. Here is the url video for my first project. Many projects will be added to the course.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=120MCF0ZRbdy7cBQ2H1eOjRCN8NXf7EXL
