7 best books on FPGA for Beginners in 2023 (Our Top Picks)

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are integrated circuits made of semiconductors that can be configured according to the choice of a manufacturer. They are used to modify already existing systems, whenever necessary. If you are curious about FPGAs, start by gathering some solid informative reading material about them. We can help you out there, as we have prepared a list of the 7 best books on FPGA.

List of 7 Best Books on FPGA

Which is the best overall book on FPGA? (Our pick)

The overall best book on the FPGA is Verilog by Example: A Concise Introduction for FPGA Design by Blaine C. Readler . Apart from the basics, the book also covers the topics essential for effective design and implementation. These include simulation, test benches, and high-level synthesis. The book also has code examples that serve as valuable resources that readers can refer to as they develop their own designs.

Which is the best FPGA book for Beginners? (Our pick)

If you are a beginner, we must recommend you Programming FPGAs: Getting Started with Verilog by Simon Monk . The book first gives an overview of digital logic and circuitry, before moving on to more advanced topics such as Verilog and VHDL. The use of practical examples to illustrate key concepts is what gives the readers an additional advantage. The author provides clear and concise explanations of different concepts throughout the book. He also gives potential benefits and drawbacks of using FPGAs.

Verilog by Example: A Concise Introduction for FPGA Design

If you are looking for a book on FPGA that focuses on Verilog then this book is ideal for you. It’s a practical book that will give you hands-on experience.

Key Features:

• A step-by-step description of Verilog
• Easy-to-understand examples
• All features of Verilog are covered
• Design real-world FPGA solutions
• All sample codes used in the book are available online

Digital System Design with FPGA: Implementation Using Verilog and VHDL

This book on FPGA focuses on Verilog and VHDL. You will gain insights on how to use both these hardware description languages for FPGA digital system design.

Key Features:

• Develop and deploy systems based on FPGA
• Principles, practices, and applications of FPGA
• Use Basys and Arty boards to create inexpensive projects
• Soft-core microcontroller and digital interfacing

Learning FPGAs: Digital Design for Beginners with Mojo and Lucid HDL

Do you want to program FPGA using some other hardware description language than Verilog? Then try using Mojo and Lucid languages with the help of this book.

Key Features:

• Design digital circuits using FPGAs
• Design your own processor
• Use Xilinx ISE to create hardware designs
•  Fully colored and illustrated images and screenshots to help you grasp things better
• Dedicated chapters on sequential and combinational logic

Make: FPGAs: Turning Software into Hardware with Eight Fun and Easy DIY Projects

If you are someone who enjoys designing things then you sure will enjoy this book. It will tell you how to design DIY hardware projects with the help of software.

Key Features:

• Learn to break down a complex problem into simpler problems that can be solved with FPGA
• Design logic to run on your FPGA
• Connect electronic components to create a complete project
• 8 very simple DIY projects

Programming FPGAs: Getting Started with Verilog

If you are already acquainted with FPGAs and want to get started on building things with FPGA technology then this book could be an excellent guide for you. You will learn it with clear and easy-to-follow examples in this book.

Key Features:

• Basics of digital logic and digital electronics
• Use of Mojo, Elbert 2, and Papilio boards
• Use ISE Design Suite
• Downloadable source codes and finished bit files
• Build projects like memory-mapped video display, timer, tone generator, LED decoder, etc

100 Power Tips for FPGA Designers

Unlike all the other books on the list, this book is not in the form of a reference book or a textbook. This book is full of short articles on multiple topics of FPGA. You will find interesting and useful information on different aspects of FPGAs.

Key Features:

• Full of illustrations and code examples
• Focus on FPGA families like Xilinx Virtex-6 and Spartan-6
• Verilog HDL is used for coding
• Topics include synthesis, simulation, porting ASIC designs, floorplanning and timing closure, design methodologies, performance, area, and power optimizations, RTL coding, IP core selection, etc

FPGA Programming for Beginners

Developing skills is an important part of learning anything. This book will help you develop skills that can be applied to design systems using FPGAs.

Key Features:

• Explore FPGA usage methods
• Understand FPGA tool flow
• Use SystemVerilog to design, implement, and test hardware circuits
• Use FPGA resources to build real-world projects
• Learn Xilinx architectures

Don’t ever hold yourself back from doing something just because it’s new to you. The same goes for learning about things like FPGA. Be calm and gently follow the works that are laid in front of you. This list is your best friend if you are determined to learn about FPGAs and build advanced and complex projects with them.

To get you started with FPGA, we suggest you purchase Programming FPGAs: Getting Started with Verilog by Simon Monk. It will get you started right from what FPGAs are to how you can use them to solve real-world problems. Since it’s for beginners so it doesn’t cover a lot of advanced topics. For that, you can refer to Verilog by Example: A Concise Introduction for FPGA Design by Blaine C. Readler.