DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL &ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

DIGITAL DESIGN
Dr. Alper SARIKAN
Spring 2023
 OUTLINE

○ Introduction
○ History of VHDL
○ History of Verilog
○ VHDL or Verilog
○ Digital Design Flow
○ FPGA or ASIC
○ FPGA or Microcontroller
○ FPGA Internal Structure
○ Number Systems
○ Boolean Algebra

Introduction 2
 INTRODUCTION

○ Hardware Description Language (HDL) is text based

expression to
● Model
● Analyze
● Design
○ Text based  Any text editor can be used.
○ Currently, two HDLs are mainly used to model digital systems
● VHDL
○ VHDL stands for “VHSIC Hardware Description Language”, where VHSIC
stands for “Very High Speed Integrated Circuit”.
● Verilog

Introduction 3
 HISTORY OF VHDL

○ The development of VHDL was initiated in 1981 by the United States

Department of Defense to address the hardware life cycle crisis, when
various components making up a system were individually verified using a
wide range of different and incompatible simulation languages and tools.
○ VHDL-87: DoD gives all the rights to IEEE to encourage industry
acceptance. IEEE reviewed the language and released the standard in
1987
○ VHDL-93: IEEE 1164 supports 9 logic levels. Therefore, IEEE released
VHDL-93 standard to support IEEE 1164 and add some extra features,
such as support of xnor.
○ VHDL 2000: Added protected types in VHDL. The rest is similar to VHDL
1993
○ VHDL 2002: Similar to VHDL 2000 except few additions.
○ VHDL 2008: Add support for synthesizable fixed-point and floating-point
numbers

Introduction 4
 HISTORY OF VERILOG

○ 1983/1984: Verilog was invented at Automated Integrated Design

Systems (renamed to Gateway Design Automation in 1985).
○ 1990: Gateway was bought by Cadence Design Systems
○ 1991: Cadence organized OVI (Open Verilog International)
○ 1995: Cadence decided to make the language available for
standardization. IEEE standardized it as Verilog-95 using OVI
documents. Meanwhile Cadence initiated the creation of Verilog-A
to model analog circuits.
○ 2001: Extensions to Verilog-95 was added and released as Verilog
2001 standard. Verilog 2001 standard is a significant upgrade from
Verilog-95. It adds support for signed nets and built-in operators
○ 2005: Verilog 2005 has minor corrections and spec clarifications.

Introduction 5
 VHDL OR VERILOG

○ “VHDL or Verilog” is the first important question if you want

to start to use Hardware Description Language.

○ VHDL ○ Verilog
● Similar to ADA ● Similar to C
● I/O and Operation in ● I/O and Operation in the
different blocks same block
● Allow new types ● Does not allow new types
● Package, Library concepts ● No Library concept for
for complex system design complex system design
● Switch models are not ● Switch models are available
supported by default for low level modeling

Introduction 6
 VHDL OR VERILOG

○ Gate Level: Operations are

modeled with Logic Gates
○ Logic Level: The relationship
between input and outputs are
defined with Boolean equations
○ RTL (Register Transfer Logic):
The system is modeled as data
transfer between registers
○ Algorithm: The response of the
system to inputs
○ System: The operation of whole
system is modeled
○ Verilog is preferred due to its similarity to C.
○ Experienced designers prefer VHDL due to the library and package
capability of VHDL.
Introduction 7
 DIGITAL DESIGN FLOW

○ System requirements are given by the

customer, system designer, and etc.
○ Functional design started at algorithm of
behavioral level depending on system
complexity.
○ Functional verification is performed to check
the functional design meets requirements.
○ Synthesis is used to convert functional design
to logic gates.
○ Place & Route is for placing the logic gates
within the allowed area and routing the signal
connection among the cells.
○ If the design meets functional and timing
specification, the product is sent to
manufacturing.

Introduction 8
 FPGA OR ASIC

○ FPGA: Field Programmable Gate Array

● Consists of Logic Gates and programmable interconnected
● Antifuse FPGA: One-time programmable, Does not require extra
memory to store configuration
● SRAM based FPGA: Allows reprogramming, Requires extra
memory to store configuration
○ ASIC: Application Specific Integrated Circuit
● Includes Digital and Analog circuits
● Lower power, lower area and higher speed than FPGA for the
same technology
● Higher cost than FPGA for low production numbers
● No reprogramming available, any change on the circuit requires
remanufacturing

Introduction 9
 FPGA OR MICROCONTROLLER

○ FPGA ○ Microcontroller
● Programmed using HDL, such ● Programmed using C or
as VHDL or Verilog assembly
● Allows real-time parallel ● Real-time parallel processing
processing is not available.
● Peripheral circuits need to be ● Peripheral circuits are
designed. predesigned.
● Peripheral circuits operation is ● Peripheral circuits operation is
determined by design. controlled using registers
● Response to any situation at ● Response to any situation
nanoseconds requires couple of clock cycles
● Most I/O pads are general ● I/O pads are shared between
purpose different peripheral circuits
● It can operate at any clock ● Allowed clock rates are
rate determined by manufacturer
Introduction 10
 FPGA OR MICROCONTROLLER

○ FPGA ○ Microcontroller
● Timing of digital circuits ● Timing of digital circuits is
should be guaranteed by the guaranteed by the
designer manufacturer
● Usually, more expensive ● As cheap as couple of dollars

○ The answer of the question FPGA or Microcontroller

depends on the application
● The time constant in a refrigerator is around minutes. Therefore, a
cheap microcontroller will suffice.
● A network controller should switch data at gigabit/s requires
parallel processing. Therefore, a FPGA is suitable

Introduction 11
 FPGA INTERNAL STRUCTURE

○ Main FPGA Structure

● Logic Block
● Programmable
Interconnect
● I/O Pad
○ Extra Circuits
● Clock Generator (PLL or
Delay Line)
● SRAM Memory
● Hardware Multiplier
● DSP Blocks
● Serial-Parallel Converter
● Parallel-Serial Converter

Introduction 12
 FPGA INTERNAL STRUCTURE

○ Logic Blocks realize combinational

circuits using lookup tables.
○ The advantage of this technique is
that the area does not depend on
the Boolean equation complexity.
○ For example
● 2-input AND gate has 4 possible
outputs.
● These outputs are programmed to the
memory input of the MUX, which
selects one of the inputs depending on
the A and B inputs

Introduction 13
 FPGA INTERNAL STRUCTURE

○ Logic blocks have also D Flip-

Flop to realize synchronous
circuits.
○ Using MUXs the output of the
combinational block either
connected to D Flip-Flop input
or routed to the Logic Block
output.
○ The number of inputs for the
MUX to realize combinational
circuits depends on the FPGA
Family. Some new FPGA’s uses
6 input MUX.
Introduction 14
 NUMBER SYSTEMS

○ The main advantage of digital systems is faster calculation of

mathematical expressions than humans.
○ Humans use base-10 during calculations
○ For example
● 23.4510 = 2 × 101 + 3 × 100+4 × 10−1+5 × 10−2
○ Digital operations are performed in base-2, because there are
only two levels (0 and 1) are defined.
○ To convert any base-2 number to base-10, every digit is
multiplied with the power of two that it represents.
● 10.012 = 1 × 21 + 0 × 20+0 × 2−1+1 × 2−2 = 2.2510

Introduction 15
 NUMBER SYSTEMS

○ To convert any base-N number represented as

● 𝑁𝑁 = 𝑎𝑎 𝑘𝑘𝑎𝑎 𝑘𝑘−1 ⋯ 𝑎𝑎2𝑎𝑎1𝑎𝑎0𝑎𝑎−1𝑎𝑎−2 ⋯ 𝑎𝑎−𝑙𝑙+1𝑎𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑅𝑅

○ To base-10, every digit is multiplied with the power of R that

it represents
● 𝑁𝑁 = 𝑎𝑎𝑘𝑘 × 𝑅𝑅 𝑘𝑘 + 𝑎𝑎𝑘𝑘−1 × 𝑅𝑅 𝑘𝑘−1 + ⋯
+𝑎𝑎2 × 𝑅𝑅 2 + 𝑎𝑎1 × 𝑅𝑅1 + 𝑎𝑎0 × 𝑅𝑅0
+𝑎𝑎−1 × 𝑅𝑅−1 + 𝑎𝑎−2 × 𝑅𝑅−2 + ⋯
+𝑎𝑎−𝑙𝑙+1 × 𝑅𝑅−𝑙𝑙+1 + 𝑎𝑎−𝑙𝑙 × 𝑅𝑅−𝑙𝑙
○ 𝑎𝑎𝑖𝑖 is the i’th digit value and allowed values are between 0 and
R − 1. If R is greater than 10, letters from the alphabet is
used. For example, base-16 allowed digit values are
● 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F

Introduction 16
Introduction 17
Introduction 18
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

○ Boolean Algebra is developed by George Boole in 1847 to

solve logic problems.
○ In Boolean algebra, a variable has only two possible values.
○ “0” represents open position of a switch.
○ “1” represents close position of a switch.
○ Basic mathematical operations are AND, OR and NOT
○ NOT operation gives the complement of a variable

Introduction 19
Introduction 20
Introduction 21
Introduction 22
Introduction 23
Introduction 24
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

○ AND operation is used to implement logical conjuction

○ OR operation is used to implement logical disjunction

Introduction 25
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

○ NOR Gate ○ XOR Gate

○ NAND Gate ○ XNOR Gate

Introduction 26
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

○ Another widely used digital circuit is MUX

○ A 2-to-1 MUX selects one of its inputs depending on the
select input.
○ If A is “0” the output is the same as the I0 input
○ If A is “1” the output is the same as the I1 input

Introduction 27
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

○ The select one of the input idea can be generalized for n-to-1
MUX
○ The control input is considered as n-bit number and to
determine the input to select, it is converted to base-10.

Introduction 28
 BOOLEAN ALGEBRA

○ Truth table is used to list the input combinations and their

respective outputs.
○ For example, generate the truth table for the following circuit

○ This circuit is defined using IF-ELSE statement

Introduction 29