One small chip, one step at a time
Chip Design Course
Start with the smallest useful design: a low-voltage LED blinker.
Administrator access
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Enter the course administrator username and password to open Lesson 1.
What the chip does
Plain words
File 1 · led_blinker.v
The chip design
Try it here
LED blinker tool
This browser tool reads the design you edited above. [Simulation; a computer copy of how the chip would behave.] Try changing the last 1'b0 to 1'b1, then click Check design.
This first tool understands the small set of Verilog rules used in this lesson. It does not build a physical chip.
Run 8 beats shows four full blinks in about four seconds.
| Step | Enable | LED |
|---|
File 2 · led_blinker_tb.v
The computer test
Run the test
The Check design button above runs the on/off checks in this browser. To run the separate test file on your computer, save the two files with the names above and use these commands:
How this leads to a chip
The code sets the LED's on and off rules. This page lets you check those rules. Later, [synthesis; software that turns the code into connected logic gates.] and [physical design; software that places and wires those gates on a chip.] prepare a design for manufacturing. This page teaches the first design and check step.
Read more: Yosys: turning code into gates · OpenROAD: placing and wiring gates