What is the project?
The goal was to build a complex number calculator that
was capable of adding, subtracting and multiplying 8-bit signed numbers.
At the core of the system is an enhanced ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit), called
an Imaginary Arithmetic Logic Unit (IALU). To interface the IALU
to the world, we built a keypad interface module and a LCD interface module
which can be used to connect a Grayhill 4x4 keypad and a Sharp 16x2 LCD.
After designing all of this, we had to get it all to fit in an Altera
10K20RC240-4 FPGA chip, to which we connected up our LCD and keypad.
The people:
Noah Aklilu <aklilu@ee.ualberta.ca>
<http://www.ee.ualberta.ca/~aklilu/>
Macro Castellon <castell@ee.ualberta.ca>
Curtis Wickman <wickman@ee.ualberta.ca>
<http://www.ee.ualberta.ca/~wickman/>
What do you use for your design
tools?
Our system was built using VHDL
with Altera's Maxplus2 software.
This package was the most integrated
with the FPGA, though it did
have its pitfalls.
The System Specs:
Clock Frequency : 10KHz with LCD
(without LCD >15MHz)
Chip Area: ~98% of 10K20RC240