Get started with Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs)

Flash programmable Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs) are great for creating complex high-speed logic circuits. Unfortunately the current CPLDs, although affordable, come in packages that are hardly suited for soldering without special equipment. The 4-layer breakout board we present here is designed for easy prototyping with the 100-pin TQFP EPM570 MAX II CPLD containing 440 macro cells.

Researchers working at Linköping University in Sweden have developed an optimization process to give a five-fold boost in processing speed of a standard algorithm implemented in an FPGA...

We’ve used nearly every I/O port of the prototyping board at least once in this FPGA course. We say ‘nearly’ because we haven’t used the Ethernet port up to now. The final instalment of the course sets this right with a full-fledged webserver application.

In this instalment of the course we’re going to put together our own USB microcontroller. In terms of technical features, it can certainly hold its own against commercial USB controllers such as the Cypress IC.

A picture is worth a thousand words, which is probably why alphanumeric displays have given way to graphic displays in the latest mobile telephones. Although our FPGA prototyping board is not a small as a mobile phone, it can still generate video. That’s why it has a VGA port.

You no doubt have an old PS/2 keyboard gathering dust somewhere. Now you can put it to good use again as an input device for the FPGA prototyping board. This instalment of our FPGA course tells you how.

Every embedded system uses a system bus to transport data between the various components. This also applies to systems implemented in an FPGA. However, a different sort of bus system is commonly used in FPGAs. This month’s article introduces a bus system that is often used in FPGAs.

Welcome back to the beginner-friendly course we run in support of our extremely popular FPGA Development System. This month we examine the simulation capabilities of Quartus. Simulation makes it a lot easier to design circuits and track down errors in your designs. The accompanying examples show how you can use the audio interface of the prototyping board.

This month we’ll use the FPGA to construct a simple microcontroller system using a (free) 8052 microcontroller core. The microcontroller drives various peripheral elements of the prototyping board, including the I2C interface. Finally, we’ll use it to build a four-channel multimeter.

In the first article of this series, we described the basic components of digital electronics and put them to use. In this second instalment, we introduce some components that are a bit more complicated and perform a few simple calculations using digital logic.