Digital design

What Hacker News says

1. rodletteJan 2024
   There's a time and space for games, but I'll just note that for HN readers, following https://www.amazon.com.au/Digital-Design-Computer-Architectu... and building a RISC-V in Verilog is easily manageable.
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2. MadameXAug 2019
   Aho/Ullman Foundations of CS http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ullman/focs.html

   O'Halloran/Bryant CSPP https://csapp.cs.cmu.edu/

   David Money Harris Digital Design... https://booksite.elsevier.com/9780128000564/

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3. ThrowawayR2Jun 2019
   Here you go:

   Cheap FPGA boards for educational purposes: https://store.digilentinc.com/fpga-for-beginners/

   The software is free: https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/ise-design-suit...

   The hard part is several semesters worth of textbooks to go through that cover digital logic (try Mano's "Digital Design: With an Introduction to the Verilog HDL" to start with) through computer architecture in order to know what to do with the board.

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4. ThrowawayR2Nov 2018
   No disrespect to Petzold intended (I'm a huge fan of his technical works) but "Code" is at best at a pop-sci level. It prepares one for doing digital logic as well as "A Brief History Of Time" prepares one for doing coursework in cosmology.

   Try the Brown book or Mano's "Digital Design" (my preference; took a while to remember his name) and see if it works for you. Good luck.

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5. lvoudourOct 2017
   I actually want to understand the chip manufacturing process - design, prototyping (using FPGAs, etc), baking process in foundries. And also at least a basic understanding of how IP is managed in chip industry - like "IP core" is a term that I frequently hear but due to the myriad interpretations available online, I don't really understand what an "IP core" really means. Hoping to get useful advice from veterans in the chip industry.

   I was about to write a thorough answer but jsolson's very good answer mostly covered what I had to say. I'll add my 2 cents anyway

   - To understand the manufacturing process you need to know the physics and manufacturing technology. That's very low level stuff that takes years to master. There are books and scientific papers on the subject but it's a game very few players can play (ie. big manufacturers like intel and TSMC, maybe top universities/research centres). You can try some introductory books like Introduction to Microelectronic Fabrication [1] and Digital Integrated Circuits [2] by Rabaey if you're curious

   - You can design ASICs without being an "expert" on the low level stuff, but the tools are very expensive (unless you're a student and your college has access to those tools). You need to learn VHDL/Verilog, definitely need the right tools (which, I'll say it again, are too expensive for hobbyists) and extra money to spend for manufacturing.

   - FPGAs are different. No need to know the physics and you don't have to bother with expensive tools and foundries, the chip is already manufactured. My advice is to

   (a) get an FPGA board. Digilent boards are a good choice as jsolson said, but there are other/cheaper solutions as well [3][4]. You'll still need software tools but (for these boards) they are free

   (b) learn VHDL and/or Verilog. Plenty of books and online resources. A good book I recommend is RTL Hardware Design Using VHDL [5]

   (c) I assume you know some basic principles of digital design (gates, logic maps, etc.). If not you'll need to learn that first. A book is the best option here, I highly recommend Digital Design [6] by Morris Mano

   [1] https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Microelectronic-Fabricat...

   [2] https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Integrated-Circuits-2nd-Rabae...

   [3] https://www.scarabhardware.com/minispartan6/

   [4] http://saanlima.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&pa...

   [5] http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471720925...

   [6] https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Design-3rd-Morris-Mano/dp/013...

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6. kttaNov 2016
   I would suggest Digital Design by Morris Mano[1]. It'll start off with basic intro from digital gates to FPGAs itself! And you really don't need any EE background for this book. This book starts from absolute basics and it'll also teach you Verilog along the way. And verilog is used more in the industry than VHDL(which more popular in Europe and in the US army for some reason).

   I'm surprised where you got the idea of using C to program FPGAs, are you thinking of SystemC or OpenCL (they're both vastly different from each other)

   I'm really surprised a sibling comment recommended the code book. It really meant to be a layman's reading about tech. It's a great book but it won't teach you programming FPGAs.

   [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Design-Introduction-Verilog-H...

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