[sdiy] Avnet Spartan-3A Dev Board - USB-UART Bridge Info

[Scott Gravenhorst]

Grant Richter <grichter at asapnet.net> wrote:
>>
>> In my opinion, an FPGA is a very optimal design environment for  
>> high performance, high
>> fidelity, high complexity musical synthesis.
>>
>
>And your top level design document can be a graphical diagram. That  
>is perfect for old school signal processing types like me who think  
>in diagrams.

Even with free WebPACK ISE, you can generate a schematic representation of your
design - even if your design is entirely VHDL or Verilog.  I've found this very
helpful in locating where I've done a doofus thing.  (c:

>VHDL can be optimal for implementing function blocks, but a general  
>signal flow diagram is much more readable IMHO.

Agreed, I'm visual.  When I read Verilog, I do force myself to visualize
flipflops, muxes, adders, etc.

>Luckily, Xilinx dev software let's you mix and match pretty much  
>seamlessly.

Yes!  I read about that and tried mixing VHDL modules with Verilog modules just to
amaze myself...  And I know it can work with schematic entry too.  I didn't have
to know squat about the supplied VHDL modules to get it working either.

-- ScottG
________________________________________________________________________
-- Scott Gravenhorst
-- FPGA MIDI Synthesizer Information: home1.gte.net/res0658s/FPGA_synth/
-- FatMan: home1.gte.net/res0658s/fatman/
-- NonFatMan: home1.gte.net/res0658s/electronics/
-- When the going gets tough, the tough use the command line.