Here in this article we will show a Graphical Processor Unit (GPU) introductory demo for the Alchitry Au V2 FPGA Development Board (Xilinx Artix 7)
For this demo please use the following Alchitry adapter for the HDMI output.
Also the following HDMI cable converter is also needed, shown the next picture and available at DigiKey
for this Graphical Processor Unit Demo. Proceed to attach both boards together as follows,
The GPU demo is shown in the following video,
What do you see in this video? No, it is not a paper plane! What we see here is the rendering of the internally implemented GPU in the FPGA, that processes a single triangle (fundamental building block) stored in Read Only Memory (ROM) that is rotating in an axis in a rectangular coordinate system as the frame of reference. Approximations to real world objects can be accomplished using many of these triangles with many limitations using this very well know and standard methodology. Each triangle is made of vertices (with X, Y, Z coordinates) and faces and in this case, only a single triangle is stored in the FPGA ROM for the GPU to render via the HDMI interface,
Therefore, it is very important for anyone who is learning or starting in this field, to understand this type of design decision using a collection of triangles to represent three dimensional objects from the universe. There are many other techniques being used for approximating three dimensional objects to explore.
There is an internal Finite State Machine (FSM See Part 3 of this series) that performs a drawing function, fetches the face and each vertex, and of course waits for the so called pipeline to not become stalled like an airplane during take off. The word pipeline might sound esoteric, but is very simple, it only means that there are many processes that work together at the same time but separately that need to be coordinated inside the GPU implemented in this case in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).
This is the first introductory article in relation to the GPU demo that is standard in the Alchitry Au V2 FPGA Development Board (Xilinx Artix 7). The Alchitry Au V2 FPGA Development Board (Xilinx Artix 7) is a compact but very powerful FPGA platform and is available at DigiKey. Have a wonderful day!
This article is available in spanish here.
Este artículo está disponible aquí.