Verilog and FPGA: where to start

You've built a processor from gates and written assembly programs — now learn to describe circuits in Verilog and turn them into a real chip on an FPGA board. This hub gathers the whole path: from your first module to flashing a board.

The "From Code to Silicon" article cycle

Six articles explain how Verilog differs from ordinary programming languages and how a parallel circuit is born from a text description:

1. Silicon Instead of Code: Why Verilog Is Not Programming
2. How Hardware Makes Decisions (Life Without if/else)
3. Teaching Silicon Math (The Secret of '+')
4. Hierarchy: How Not to Drown in Wires
5. Data Buses: From Individual Bits to Bytes
6. ALU: The Heart of Your Processor
7. Verilog: Memory and Time — flip-flops, registers, RAM (levels 3.37–3.39)
8. Tang Nano 9K: From ZIP to Board — flash the project onto real hardware

Practice in the simulator

All 14 Verilog levels of the course (30–43) run right in the browser: code editor, simulator, RTL viewer and waveforms. Start with level 30 "Hello, Wire!" — your first module in 15 minutes. Then buses, an ALU, memory and multi-file projects.

Build a real computer

• Level 47 guide "Create the Computer" — the final project of the course: your Verilog processor exports to a ZIP for the Tang Nano 9K board.
• Ershov Board — technical specification — the spec of our own educational board designed together with the course.
• Component datasheets — a reference for the elements of your processor.

What is an FPGA

An FPGA (field-programmable gate array) is a chip whose internal routing and logic blocks can be reconfigured in software. A circuit described in Verilog goes through synthesis and is mapped into FPGA logic — this is how "text" becomes hardware. It is the same path industrial chip design takes, just at teaching scale.

Next steps

• Library index — level guides, datasheets and all articles.
• Course curriculum — the full 47-level timeline.
• Logic circuit simulator — start with visual construction.