Help me in FPGA and DSP for the final project

[faresfares]

Hi everybody

Help me in FPGA and DSP for the final project

I study computer engineering in 5'th year , I need to do a final project , I have 8 month ( 4 for the therotical dtudy and 4 for the other one )
I know some VHDL , I think about project contains FPGA and DSP becuase I want to learn those fields but I don't know any thing about them .
I want to know which is better Altera or Xilinx ?
please guide me how to start and where I can find ideas for project .



thank you very much

 

[TrickyDicky]

One is not better than the other. They are pretty much equal now, but some prefer altera and some prefer Xilinx.

 

[joelby]

Use whichever one your professor or tutor uses - that way you'll be able to ask them for help (you'll need it).

Unless you really want to buy all your own stuff, find out what equipment (development boards, software licenses) your university has, and borrow those for your project.

 

[faresfares]

Thank you guys

but I need to know how to start FPGA and DSP ?
guide me to video courses , books , taturials etc
any plan or sugessions

- - - Updated - - -

Thank you guys

but I need to know how to start FPGA and DSP ?
guide me to video courses , books , taturials etc
any plan or sugessions

- - - Updated - - -

Thank you guys

but I need to know how to start FPGA and DSP ?
guide me to video courses , books , taturials etc
any plan or sugessions

 

[mrflibble]

Xilinx and altera both have youtube channels you can use to pre-soak your brain. By which I mean it's no substitute for some good reading, but browsing around can get you started....

Also, consider the course material presumably provided by your uni...

 

[faresfares]

any ideas for final project please

 

[joelby]

Hamburger earmuffs?

You should think about what you're interested in (this will help). If you really don't have any ideas, ask your professor or tutor for suggestions of projects that they think you'll be able to complete in the time you have. They should have a long list of past projects, or a bunch of things they'd like you to be working on to further their own research.

 

[faresfares]

I live in syria and in my university there is no kit for FPGA and the proffessors don't take such project so i have to do all the work with my self

 

[joelby]

I'm not sure I'd recommend doing a final project using equipment/topics you've never used, that your university doesn't have, and that your professors don't know about!

If you're still set on it, why don't you do some reading and pick a topic you find interesting? Anything we suggest will probably sound terrible to you.

 

[permute]

You can also look at HW acceleration of math functions. for example, you might look into classic LA problems like matrix multiplications, least-squares, svd/eigenvalue solvers. If you are fluent in english, you can go to websites like coursera to find some ideas (machine learning, compilers, graph methods, algorithms, etc... you don't have to take the classes to "preview" the lectures -- and really no one cares if you "fail" a class on coursera)

I suggest being somewhat boring with the topic though -- 8 mo gives you little time to come up to speed on all of the issues you'll encounter in an actual design.

 

[faresfares]

thanks everybody

 

[BabaYaga]

First of all if you would like to work on FPGAs and DSPs then you got to have a development board.
For FPGAs
I would suggest you buy a Xilinx based kit as Altera based boards are pretty expensive
you can look into **broken link removed** they have a Basys board which has got Spartan 3E board.
If you want to have more cheaper board then go for Lattice semiconductor's FPGA board it a really nice board to start off with.

Now since you mentioned about DSPs and you are not clear with what application to build.
I would suggest you to implement FFT algorithms on FPGA using verilog or VHDL algorithms it would be really exciting.
and in fact i would say buy Xilinx based boards, because you can link your Xilinx boards with Matlab and dump directly your Matlab signal processing applications on to the xilinx FPGAs through a Xilinx tool called System Generator which converts you simulink models into direct verilog or VHDL codes and implements directly them on FPGA.
I can talk a whole day on this stuff, i hope this gives you some idea.

 

[vijaymighty123]

Wonderful answers to the above query. As per my opinion -
1) Choose one of them - My suggestion FPGA! They are faster, reprogrammable, have huge area and also very good when it comes to high speed designs.
2) As BhavaniT mentions buying a board is a must. You get cheap ones from Digilent.
3) I feel doing a bit of Verilog would be simpler than VHDL (though this is through personal opinion). I'v learnt both the languages and found Verilog pretty easy to code in.
4) I feel Xilinx website is the best resource place to start off with, in order to learn basics.
5) There are online websites which give training on FPGA design few for free (e.g. Xilinx) and few for a price. I did my online training from www.worldserve.in. Very cheap price for the course and they teach you live! No recorded video right at your doorstep!

 

[BabaYaga]

I feel Xilinx website is the best resource place to start off with, in order to learn basics.

I agree with @vijaymighty123 xilinx is the best place to start off with, the site has got plenty of literature available compared to the other guys.
And yes verilog is the preferred language for me too, VHDL is a little complex and i use it sometimes.
You might even get a lot of data like RTL coding guidelines etc on the xilinx website.