large project- understnd /decode

large project- understnd /decode Guest 2015-10-09 01:06 #4303498

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Hi all,

 so I am a newbie in the feild of verilog and HDL design. I inherited a 
very large Quartus project which I am trying to make sense of.I am 
essentially an embedded c programmer and used to the function calls and 
ability to search for variables and functions and decode the flow.

 Can someone tell me how to go about decoding this project.is there any 
software that can help me. In quartus i cant even find a search entire 
project feature.So figuring out where some of the signals are coming 
from, i.e the source of input for some of the modules is daunting to me 
:( Please help out.

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Lothar M. (lkmiller) Moderator (Company: Titel) 2015-10-09 07:22 #4303585

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large project- understnd /decode wrote:
> I inherited a very large Quartus project which I am trying to make
> sense of.
Why that?
Because you must find some "random" and "obscure" problems within?
Or is it running fine, but you must maintain this project further on?

If the second: did you already "play araound" with Verilog and simple 
designs like a blinking led, a chasing light, a RS232 interface or 
similar simple things?

If the first: go and get a pro. There will be some asynchronous parts 
inside the design which you will not be able find (at least for the 
next 2 years)...

> I am essentially an embedded c programmer
Huh, thats a major drawback. FORGET all the "software thinking". Verilog 
is a HDL (= Hardware DESCRIPTION Language). And to describe something 
you must have a picture of it (at least in mind). That means you must 
"think in hardware". A counter is not a heap of characters like c=c+1, 
instead its a chain of registers with logic to calculate the next 
counter value. Having that in mind you can write down c=c+1 easily.

> Can someone tell me how to go about decoding this project.
You have some hints for sure:
- the surrounding and connected circuit and its function
- a register description and a functional description of the design 
itself
I would dig the design top-down: from the pins connected to the "real 
world" down to the registers of counters...

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Klaus Guest 2015-10-09 07:53 #4303596

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You may get an overview by creating the RTL (Register-Transfer-Logic) 
diagram. (I am unfortunately not able to tell you the exact steps to get 
it, but you may read it in the help). This view is usually 
hierarchically organized, so that you may advance from coarse to fine 
details.
This view will you tell much about signal- (data-)flow throughout the 
whole project.

It is, however, a non-trivial task for an unexperienced, to get the 
clue. But there is no way around. Bite through. :-) As these 
"opportunities" mostly occur when there is something wrong, and the boss 
tells you, to "just have a look - it must be something simple", you are 
about to dive into a venture. Good luck.

One major issue for somebody coming from procedural programming is the 
intuitive but wrong assumption that the VHDL-Code is a procedural 
description as well - despite "knowing" (from numerous warnings about 
it) - that VHDL is (mostly) a structural description. Whenever you are 
worried about a obviously contradictory, strange assignment or sequence, 
reconsider this fact. As an anchor I would recommend you to read a part 
of a tutorial considering concurrent expressions/statements. It is, even 
with these countermeasures, a hard thing to overcome habit.

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Lothar M. (lkmiller) Moderator (Company: Titel) 2015-10-09 08:37 #4303645

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Klaus wrote:
> that the VHDL-Code is a procedural description as well - despite
> "knowing" (from numerous warnings about it) - that VHDL is (mostly) a
> structural description.
By the way: thats valid for Verilog as well... ;-)
Even if the syntax is looking a little bit "C-ish" it ist DEFINITIVELY 
NOT a programming language! Otherwise it would be known as a HPL 
instead as a HDL...