Guidance in learning fpga programming and some ideas

[ishmeet1995]

As title says i am trying to learn how to use FPGA.
Currently i am a college student and  do some projects in embedded systems(small projects on atmega chips )
Currently I am learning verilog and i have a mimas v2 fpga kit which has spartan 6(its fairly cheap when compared to other kits)
I need some guidance how should i proceed and some referral links or books would be appreciated


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[rstofer]

That looks like a pretty nice board and the price is attractive.

I would start with the tutorials at the manufacturer's web site:
http://numato.com/mimas-v2-spartan-6-fpga-development-board-with-ddr-sdram/

You need to download and install ISE WebPack 14.7 (the last revision there will ever be since Xilinx has moved on to Vivado) and start working through the examples at the site.

The tutorial is excellent, it provides a discussion of every single step required to get a design implemented on the board.

There are tutorials all over the Internet, pick some and go!  You can also subscribe to OpenCores.org where you will find many projects covering a wide range of topics.

Not surprisingly, sequential circuits will make up the bulk of your work.  Finite State Machines are easy to create, a lot easier than back in the day where state tables were analyzed endlessly trying to eliminate a flop or two.

There are some Verilog and VHDL books and I have several (still packed as I just moved).  I don't know that I would recommend spending the money just to read about implementing a MUX.  OTOH, you can use the View RTL Schematic view to see what was synthesized.  It is probably useful to do that with some small circuits just to see how various designs look when implemented.

Start with the tutorial.  It gets as far as implementing a CPU with DDR RAM.  Unfortunately, it requires a registered copy of the Xilinx EDK and a locked version costs nearly $500.  When you get this far, consider buying an Artix 7 and using Vivado because you can license the required IP for free.  Read the description carefully, particularly the bit about licensing Vivado:
http://store.digilentinc.com/arty-board-artix-7-fpga-development-board-for-makers-and-hobbyists/

There is a ton of BlockRAM inside these FPGAs.  You may be able to design smaller softcores that don't require an interface to DDR or you might find a suitable driver at OpenCores.

Have fun!

ETA:  The EDK kit is not required for the early tutorials, just the CPU and DDR projects.