First, full disclosure:
    I used to work for Xilinx.
    I used to work for other FPGA companies.
    I do consulting engineering using FPGAs
    I am the owner of www.fpga-faq.org
    I think FPGAs are cool.
    I designed and built the first CPU in an FPGA, the RISC4005, in 1990
       (it took a while for the idea to catch on)

>But to be super sure I'm in the right place, What I want to do is write
>in some HDL, connect Nots, Nands, Ors, Muxen, all together an design my
>own CPU, as well as memory? I'm in the right place with FPGA's yes?

by "place" do you mean 'the right maillist to talk about FPGAs',
or 'should you be using an FPGA'?

This mail list is focussed on people using PIC microprocessors, but seems
quite tolerant of other topics provided appropriate use of [OT] is used.
This maillist is also much more active than a Yahoo group specifically
intended for your topic:   http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/fpga-cpu/info
which is not dead, but has almost no activity.
The other place is over on google groups:
   https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/comp.arch.fpga

As for the platform for implementing a CPU, the FPGA is the perfect device
for someone to experiment with CPU design, tradeoff experimentation, and
also learning digital hardware design.  Go for it!.

Given my experience, I will describe things in terms of Xilinx, but other
FPGA vendors have similar offerings. They are Altera, Lattice, and
Microsemi. (there are others...)

>And if so, is this something the Arduino IDE does?

No. The Arduino IDE supports software development for Arduino type devices,
which are CPUs. There is no support for FPGAs in the Arduino IDE.

Each FPGA vendor has their own IDE.

I am assuming from your postings that you are coming to hardware design
from a software background. While the software experience will help you
in writing the software for your CPU when it is complete, and maybe help
you in deciding what instructions your CPU should implement, it can be
a hinderance to learning to do hardware design with HDL. The reason is
that the HDL will look like a programming language, and you will be
tempted to try using it that way. This is incorrect.

HDL is a Hardware Description Language. It describes hardware, it is
not a program that gets executed.  If you think of a HDL file as a
type of datasheet, that would be better. The two most common HDLs are
Verilog and VHDL.  Someone else mentioned the Blue Book. I recommend it too=
..

"HDL Chip Design" by Douglas J Smith. It covers both Verilog and VHDL.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=3Dt&tn=3Dhdl+chip+design

http://www.amazon.com/Hdl-Chip-Design-Synthesizing-Simulating/dp/0965193438

An IDE for FPGA design usually includes the following:
	Text editor that can do syntax highlighting for HDL
	Simulation (simulates the HDL, without actually creating an FPGA design)
	Translation/Synthesis (turns you HDL into a gate level description)
	Placement (finds a placement of the gates for the target FPGA)
	Routing   (figures out how to connect all the gates and flipflops etc)
	Timing analysis
	Bitstream generation
	Debugging tools
	Module generation tools
	Visual editors/viewers that may help in pin allocation, and logic placemen=
t
	Stuff I have forgotten.

In Xilinx's case, there are two IDEs: ISE and Vivado.
ISE handles all the older products, such as Spartan 3 and 6, and Virtex 2,
4, 5, 6, products through to the latest Series 7 and Zynq.

Vivado is a new IDE and new set of tools, that supports Series 7, Zynq,
and future products.

For you, I recommend either Spartan 3 or 6 since the available boards
are less expensive, and more than capable of supporting your intended
project. That means ISE.

Xilinx has a free version of ISE called WebPack, that supports the
smaller FPGAs, which covers all of the low cost FPGA boards with Xilinx
chips listed above.
   http://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/ise-design-suite/ise-webpack=
..htm

The most recent version is ISE 14.6 and you will be delighted to hear that
the download is about 7.5 GB because it contains everything you need and
a huge amount of stuff you don't, because it is the full ISE paid for packa=
ge.
The WebPack subset is activated during install, when you tell it you only
want WebPack (free stuff) features.

>I downloaded Xlinx Vivado, because that's what I thought it does, but it
>is such a huge monster of a program that I couldn't install it on my lapto=
p.

Time to upgrade you laptop  :-)

In terms of shopping for a board with an FPGA, any of the following are
sufficient for you to design and build a CPU.

	http://www.gadgetfactory.net/papilio/        (3 variants)
	http://www.xess.com/shop/product/xula-200/
	http://www.xess.com/shop/product/xula2-lx25/
	http://www.altera.com/education/univ/materials/boards/de0-nano/unv-de0-nan=
o-board.html
	http://www.xilinx.com/products/boards-and-kits/AES-S6MB-LX9.htm

You might also want to look here:

	http://www.fpga-faq.org/FPGA_Boards.shtml    which lists 100's of FPGA boa=
rds!!!

An excelent tutorial on designing FPGA CPUs can be found here:

	http://www.fpgacpu.org/xsoc/cc.html

and in particular:  http://www.fpgacpu.org/papers/xsoc-series-drafts.pdf

>If I use the Xilinx Vivado to do the design, will that work with the other
>brands like Lattice?

Nope.

Have fun !!!!!
Philip Freidin





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