News: September 2022
Welcome to Project F news for July, August, and September 2022. There are four blog posts to cover and plans for the remainder of 2022. Watch out for more news in December 2022.
New Posts
There were numerous minor updates across Project F this summer, but I will focus on the new graphics posts in this news update, all of which build on a new framebuffer.
Framebuffers
I’ve been experimenting with FPGA drawing for several years now and Framebuffers is my latest attempt at a simple yet flexible design for drawing graphics on an FPGA. This post provides an introduction to framebuffers and how to scale them up. We’ll also learn how to fizzlefade graphics Wolfenstein 3D style.
Lines and Triangles
Sometimes it feels like the whole of modern computer graphics is underpinned by triangles, and this post shows you how to handle them at the lowest level. Using the new framebuffer, Lines and Triangles ports Bresenham’s algorithm from C to Verilog. We also cover the efficient conversion of graphics coordinates into memory addresses.
2D Shapes
2D Shapes adds new drawing capabilities, including the rectangle, circle, and filled shapes. Once you understand these designs, you can create a wide range of graphics and user interfaces. The designs and demos are all there, but I want to add explanations for the algorithms.
Castle Drawing
The Castle Drawing demo uses techniques from the graphics series to render a simple castle scene without any CPU or software. I plan to extend this design as and when I extend Project F’s graphics capabilities.
What’s Next
Here’s a taste of what I have planned for the last three months of 2022.
Animated Shapes
One more graphics post needs an update for 2022: Animated Shapes. This revised post will cover double-buffering and animation using the new framebuffer design. Expect demos for Arty, iCEBreaker, and Verilator.
Fixed-Point Numbers
I’ve made minor improvements to Numbers in Verilog, but Mathematics and Algorithms didn’t get much love over the summer. Rest assured, a new post on fixed-point numbers will appear before the end of the year.
FPGA Boards
I’ve recently added a new FPGA Boards section to the website. This autumn, I plan to kick off with pages for the two boards I know best: iCEBreaker and Arty.
YouTube Demo Reel
The existing FPGA Graphics demo reel features none of the new designs from 2022; it’s about time I fixed that. I may also experiment with captures of Verilator/SDL simulations.
Thank You, Sponsors!
Thank you to my sponsors for supporting my work on Project F: Adrian Scripcă, John W. Terrell, Juri Tsirihhov, ketmonkey, kromych, Michael Doornbos, Paul Sajna, STjurny, and those who wish to remain anonymous.
If you like what I do, consider joining them and sponsoring me on GitHub. I love FPGAs and want to help more people discover and use them in their projects.
Read the December 2022 news or see the news archive.