FPGA design for Software Engineers, part 4 - Multiplexed Seven Segment Displays
This time we’ll continue from the last design article and add in the ability to drive multiple seven segment displays.
This time we’ll continue from the last design article and add in the ability to drive multiple seven segment displays.
Last time we took a break from Verilog and hardware design to improve our build system. This time we’re back to Verilog and for our next FPGA project we’ll create a seven segment driver circuit that will allow us to output hex characters to a single display.
A seven segment display is a set of LEDs arranged like an eight plus a decimal point like you see on cheap alarm clocks and the like.
Over the last few years I’ve gotten more interested in electronics and FPGA design. I’ve also noticed that a lot of other software folks seem interested in doing the same, but often don’t know where to start. So, I think I have some interesting advice for software engineers that feel like dipping their toes into the hardware world from the point of view of a software engineer.
In this post I’ll go over FPGAs in general, the basics of the Verilog language, simulating a design and deploying it to an inexpensive TinyFPGA-BX board.