[Coco] OT: FPGA Guys out there

[Mark McDougall]

On 5/03/2013 6:59 AM, John Kent wrote:

> The book I started out with was VHDL 3rd edition by Douglas Perry, but I
> can't honestly say that I found it very useful.

I actually started with the same book and, like John, didn't find it very 
useful at all. The problem I've found with books on the topic in general is 
that they don't really focus on real-world examples - or perhaps more 
importantly real world *problems* - and tend to get bogged down in trying to 
teach you the language from A-Z when in truth, there's a lot of aspects that 
you won't use much, or will only use in simulation.

** By problems I mean things like clock-domain issues.

Something else you won't learn from a book is synthesis issues like timing 
constraints. They're tied to the silicon you choose and you can only learn 
that from the vendor documentation.

Personally, I learn better by doing, so again, like John, for me it was a 
matter of studying code and modifying it for my needs and gradually starting 
my own projects, starting out small.

Regards,

-- 
|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it
|  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"