Field-programmable Gate Array

[Haunted360]

Hey,

Anyone care to fully explain what an FPGA can do?

I mean, can you plug for example all the wires of a GameBoy game into it (correctly somehow) and see the data on the ROM or E(E)ROM???


EG: This is what I would buy, but again can it do that stuff above???

http://www.altera.com/education/univ/ma ... board.html
http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/ ... lish&No=83

or

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/EP2C5T144-Altera ... 3f0730875a


Thanks.

[bicostp]

Basically it's a programmable chip you can program almost any ASIC circuitry you want onto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPGA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As for dumping Game Boy ROMS with it, you would have to program the chip to do that first.

[bassmasta]

Here's a good place to start.
http://www.fpga4fun.com/FPGAinfo1.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Haunted360]

But it IS possible to see any data being transferred.

AWESOME!


I will need to buy one of these then...

[evilteddy]

Just remember that FPGAs require quite a bit of technical know how to get anything going. If this is your first foray into the world of embedded electronics I would recommend that you start with a pic, arduino or avr. I would recommend at least reading through some of the datasheet of an FPGA to see if its at your level.

[Haunted360]

Oh, well I was going to buy an Arduino UNO module, but instead I went and bought the Altera DE2 anyway...

Besides, I am going to need it anyway for my 'secret' project (if it works out that is)...

And Arduino could not handle it...


Uh just to sum things up, if I say write code and have something running from the ADE2 board. Can I 'copy' the project to a single IC with the pins going to where they did?

So instead of having a massive ADE2 board plugged into a gameboy, I can fit it onto the size of the gameboys cartridge.

Is that how it works?

Make your own circuit, and place an IC on it??

(Hope you know what I mean)

Or is that the Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that Bicostp was talking about...

[tom61]

Uh just to sum things up, if I say write code and have something running from the ADE2 board. Can I 'copy' the project to a single IC with the pins going to where they did?

So instead of having a massive ADE2 board plugged into a gameboy, I can fit it onto the size of the gameboys cartridge.

Is that how it works?

Make your own circuit, and place an IC on it??

(Hope you know what I mean)

Or is that the Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that Bicostp was talking about...

Yes to all questions. You just need to program another FPGA IC of the same model with the code from your ADE2 prototype with some supporting circuitry (for power, buffers, etc.). An ASIC is a non-programmable chip that is production run for a specific application. Basically you'd replace a FPGA with an ASIC after you were finished prototyping and had the bugs worked out, if you were going to do a large production run of it.

[Haunted360]

Ah ok that makes sense then.

Thanks for your help. Much appreciated.

I'll have more questions upon receiving the item...