EE 110 Lab Experiment #7 Fall 2009

NAME: ______

EXPERIMENT 7: Altera Quartus II Software and FPGA

Due at the end of your lab period

The purpose of this laboratory is to introduce you to the software and hardware capabilities of the Altera Field Programmable Gate Array system. Students can work in pairs. Each student should submit an individual report.

Background:

A wide variety of programmable logic devices now exist. Some of the more important ones are PALs (Programmable Array Logic), GAL (Generic Array Logic), and FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array). These devices can be configured to implement a wide variety of digital functions under software control.

To configure the hardware function of such a device, it’s usually necessary to specify the functional details using specialized software, convert the functional description to a form required by the hardware, and program the device. Most modern programmable logic devices are erasable and reusable.

We have a set of FPGAs provided by Altera, one of the companies that manufactures FPGA devices.

Procedure:

1)  Follow the Quartus II tutorial in Acrobat file located on Vista.

2)  Edit your Block Diagram/Schematic file to implement a majority vote circuit. The truth table for a 3-input majority vote circuit is given below. Develop a minimized boolean expression using the truth table and neatly draw the logic diagram for your minimized expression below. Clearly label the three inputs A, B, and C as well as the output Y. Then draw transfer your logic diagram to your Block Diagram file within Quartus II.


Figure 1: Neatly drawn logic diagram that directly realizes your boolean expression of the majority vote circuit.

3)  Edit your Vector Waveform file you used in the tutorial to include the third input. Also ensure that your simulation will run through every possible combination of inputs in order to get accurate functional simulation results. (Hint: The truth table already lists all possible combinations.)

4)  Run your functional simulation to verify that your circuit works. Demonstrate the working simulation results to the teaching assistant or professor. Get their signature and comments regarding the functionality of your circuit

Simulation results:

TA Signature: ______

5)  Add the appropriate pins and then program your FPGA with your new circuit. One your FPGA is programmed and fully functional, demonstrate its operation to the teaching assistant or professor. Get their signature and comments regarding the functionality of your circuits.

FPGA testing results:

TA Signature: ______

6)  Complete the following:

a.  What results did you obtain in this experiment?

b.  What difficulties did you have?

c.  What are your conclusions? How would you like to use the FPGA in the rest of this course?

7-3