Advanced Digital Design Using Digilent FPGA Boards: VHDL / VGA Graphics Examples

by Richard E. Haskell, Darrin M. Hanna

This book contains over 30 complete VHDL examples of more advanced digital circuit designs using more complex state machines, datapaths, timing requirements, and external peripherals including external memory, PS/2 keyboard and mouse control, and transmitting data via the UART to the memory. These topics are covered by designing circuits that will display images and graphics on a VGA monitor using the Digilent Nexys2, Nexys3, or Nexys4 FPGA boards. This approach allows you to learn and practice more advanced digital design topics visually. The book picks up where the book Digital Design Using Digilent FPGA Boards – VHDL / Active-HDL Edition leaves off. That book, which is available from www.digilentinc.com and www.lbebooks.com, contains over 75 VHDL examples covering basic digital design of both combinational and sequential circuits. This book includes examples to design a checkerboard, a color palette, multiple sprites, moving sprites, and character fonts. Other examples include the use of external RAM and external flash memory, the use of a PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse to control images on the VGA screen, the design of a UART for downloading characters to the video screen through the serial port, plus video graphics examples for plotting a dot, line and circle.

244 pages, Paperback

Published January 7, 2016