A stumble along the road

This week hasn’t been the most productive for me.

I struggled to finish a simple dummy master to test the GPIO and to successfully connect my interface with the GPIO and make sure that all transactions are wishbone compatible.

Having examined my results, my supervisor pointed out the following fatal mistakes:

1- I mixed simulation commands into my verilog devices code.

2- I still think of verilog as software programming and not as Hardware description language.

Here is some tips to avoid repeating the same mistakes:

a. Always start by drawing your circuit first and then use HDL to write it

b. Keep things very simple until your level allows you to take shortcuts otherwise you are gonna end up in places you don’t wanna go and with errors that you don’t know how to solve.

c. Work smart and use your brain more than you use your hands.

This week our goal is to build an SPI device.

I came across some useful links last week that were helpful and very educating, here they are:

Iverilog command file format

SPI implementation in verilog

SPI device

More on SPI

The PIC16F877A data sheet was helpful on understanding SPI devices.

Thanks !