This series “Connecting Arduino to FPGA” describes how the Arduino can access custom registers on a FPGA. Hardware schematic and protocol implementation to transfer messages. Written in Verilog HDL and C.
Building Math Circuits implemented a math compute device on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This sequel describes a protocol and its implementation that enables a FPGA and microcontroller to communicate with each other. The idea is to generate operands on an microcontroller; the Math Hardware then performs the operations and returns the results. The communication between the devices is the focus of this article.
Connecting Arduino to FPGA
The protocol that we will use is called Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI). It is a synchronous full-duplex serial interface [1], and is commonly used to communicate with on-board peripherals such as EEPROM, FLASH memory, A/D converters, temperature sensors, or in our case a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).
We assume a working knowledge of the Verilog hardware description language. To learn more about Verilog refer a book such as “FPGA Prototyping with Verilog Examples” by Chu, do the free online class at verilog.com, or read through the slides Intro to Verilog from MIT. Instructions on installing the toolchain for the Verilog IDEs can be found at Getting Started with FPGA programming on Altera or on Xilinx.
Contents
The series “Connecting Arduino to FPGA” starts with describing the physical connections. We then look into exchanging bytes between a microcontroller and an FPGA. The last part implements an layer that allows message passing to custom registers.
Very well explained. I am looking some details with respect to interfacing Arduino with FPGA (Altera) using I2C where FPGA is a master and arduino is slave.
Can we use this project to establish a communication between Arduino and FPGA?
Yes, that is what this project does. It uses SPI with Arduino being the master.
Thanks. This project uses SPI. Both I2C and SPI are well established and documented.
The Two-stage shift register here is used to synchronize only the serial clock coming from Master. Right? Or do we need to sync the rest signals (i.e MOSI, SS, MISO) ??