The FPGA Programming Handbook: An essential guide to FPGA design for transforming ideas into hardware using SystemVerilog and VHDL

Prior to getting this book, I had zero experience with FPGAs. I always told myself I wanted to learn. At the beginning there is a quick review of logic and logic circuits, adders, and so forth. Each chapter has a Technical Requirements section that I find very helpful. At the end of each chapter, there is a Further Reading section that I also find helpful.The book does a great deal of "hand-holding," which is great for beginners. The authors' writing is accessible throughout.The hardware for the projects in the book costs about $350 at this writing. Add a few dollars for power supplies and such if you don't already have them. That's quite a bit more than a Raspberry Pi but if you're serious about learning FPGA development, this is part of the price no matter which book you choose. The book says that there are educational discounts available but doesn't elaborate on how to get them.

Heads up, this product is for intermediate users. I personally recommend if you are starting with FPGA’s to go check out “Getting started with FPGAs” by Russell Merrick.I’m only 4 chapters in and I am already really enjoying this book. It was an excellent choice after completing the recommended book above. I’m already really enjoying the Xilinx software and the implementation is very useful.Be aware that this book does require you to look around and infer a lot of information, which is why a basic understanding and knowledge of FPGA’s is a must. You have to already know some things. The author does not hold your hand on this so beware that you will need to do some research to also learn where he wants you to go and what to do if you can’t infer it.This book also has a very strong textbook vibe and implies you may be in a class taking a course using this book and some teaching material as curriculum. I’m not in a class with this and so there may be some things that I will just need to figure out but if I didn’t, I can see this book would be much larger or may have been split into 2 parts.

First of all, what the most important thing for a book is, interesting enough for readers to stick on reading. This book has made it at least for my impression.Especially when you are working in the digital IC design area. I recently involved in a project which FPGA is a necessary part of it. I have spent many my time learning the FPGA related knowledge scattering among internet. Now with this handbook, most of my previous question get resolved. Not only the HDL syntax, but also those advanced design key points including advanced interface design, FPGA resource utilization etc.What surprised me is the book also mentioned AI and ML topic in the nowadays FPGA. My point is, living the rapid AI growing time, everyone should at least know about how to deal with them, especially for engineers, we have to acquire the skills of implement AI&ML into our area to enhance our competition ability.Overall, it's a good book if you want to learn FPGA and working on it like me. It's interesting to read and also useful as a handbook for your work. The time invested in it will be paid.

This is a great introduction to FPGA programming, including an extensive collection of example projects ranging in complexity from a simple counter to generating a VGA video signal and integrating embedded microcontrollers into your designs. Along the way, you'll be introduced to Vivado, the Artix 7 FPGA, and writing code in both SystemVerilog and VHDL. Which presents a great value! Two languages, one book.The recommended companion hardware is a bit on the pricey side (access to an academic discount would help here), but the book utilizies enough of the features of the board to make it a worthwhile investment, particularly if FPGA programming is of serious interest.If you're put off by the price of the hardware or the requirement to use Vivado, there are other books out that might be a better fit, but none so far I've seen that pack so much into one volume.

The FPGA Programming Handbook is a valuable resource for intermediate learners or engineers looking to enhance their FPGA programming skills and apply them to practical projects. The book provides a solid foundation in both SystemVerilog and VHDL and guides you through the design process from concept to implementation.The book is lacking some advance topics which are crucial for intermediate to advance users. There's no project on ethernet though the targeted board has the capability. A nice project could have been data transactions between Ethernet and DDR. Also, there's no info on transceiver designs which is a requirement almost for every intermediate job. Few projects on these topics would make this a perfect Handbook.

I have several issues with this book. First, there are several mistakes in the text, whether typos or just plain errors. The book should have been more carefully proofread before going to press.My biggest gripe with this book is that the HDL listings in the text are just fragments. To see the full listings you need to get the files from GitHub. This means you need to read the book while having the full HDL code displayed on a laptop or monitor. This book is by no means a stand-along text, for without referring to the GitHub files you'll be completely lost. The full files use the "generate" command (for SystemVerilog versions) to generate different versions of the applications depending on configuration options. This clutters up the files and could easily mislead the beginners whom this book is targeted to.FPGA beginners would be better served buying any of the books by Pong Chu.