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Migrating from MCU world to FPGA - PART 1

· 11 min read
Ibrahim Kamal
Ibrahim Kamal
CEO @ Ikalogic

Before wasting too much of your precious time I’ll reply - straight forward - to those 3 questions:

  • What to expect from this document?
  • What not to expect?
  • To Whom is this article addressed?

What to expect from this document

This series of articles aims at helping you through the - sometimes painful - transition from the world of embedded programming (normal sequential programming like C, Javascript or basic) into the world of FPGA and VHDL programming (VHDL is a language used to program FPGA). It’s a journey I’ve been through some years ago, and although there are many articles out there, the subject is so hard to grasp sometimes that I thought one more article on the subject wouldn't harm. This document only talks about things encountered and tested with Xilinx Spartan family of FPGAs using VHDL programming language, but the principles remain the same for other product families or other manufacturers. Hopefully, we'll dedicate another article in the future for Lattice FPGAs and their Diamond development environment.

Plot Logic Analyzer data on a graph

· 2 min read
Ibrahim Kamal
Ibrahim Kamal
CEO @ Ikalogic

We wanted to do this for a long time, and now it's finally ready: ScanaStudio 5.0 (Still in beta at the time of writing that document) let you plot decoded data on a graph, giving much more meanigful visualization of physical quantities likes Speed, Temperature, or Acceleration.

Ikalogic in 2022

· 4 min read
Ibrahim Kamal
Ibrahim Kamal
CEO @ Ikalogic

It has been a heck of a ride. Our last blog post was in 2019. We've been through a lot in the last two and a half years. This short blog post is a quick hello to all who are following us, and a listing of all essential news.

First thing first: we're doing okay! (many have asked by email, and I thank them for asking.) The team have grown a bit, but I still need to find the time to do a photo shoot day and update the team's page.

Scan I2C bus for any present device - the easy way!

· 2 min read
Ibrahim Kamal
Ibrahim Kamal
CEO @ Ikalogic

Using a ScanaQuad logic analyzer and pattern generator, powered by the latest ScanaStudio V4.0, there are really a lot of things you can do. Today let's look at one application which you may encounter in many different situations in the life cycle of an electronics product. Often we design printed circuit boards with many (sometimes dozens) of I2C devices (like temperature sensors, ambient light sensors, IMU, EEPROM, RAM, and the list goes on!).

How to open older ScanaStudio files

· One min read
Ibrahim Kamal
Ibrahim Kamal
CEO @ Ikalogic
Note

We're currently working on bringing back support to older ScanaStudio files.

Along the years, ScanaStudio software has drastically changed, so did our experience in handling the evolution of the features of the software.