Hire FPGA Engineer
- Brief Overview of the FPGA Development
- FPGA Development Services: Pros and Cons
- VHDL vs. Verilog for FPGA Design: Who Wins the Battle?
- Reasons to Hire FPGA Programmers
- Benefits of Having a VHDL Design Engineer on Your Team
- Why You Should Have a Verilog Coder on Your Team
- Find Your Ideal FPGA Engineer at Mobilunity
FPGA or field-programmable gate array is a semiconductor device that consists of a number of configurable logic blocks linked together through programmable interconnects. After the manufacturing process, the FPGA chip can be reprogrammed to fit any application or necessary requirement which makes it a valuable asset. This versatility is what differs FPGA from a similar tool called ASIC that is being manufactured specifically for the needs of every particular project.
Brief Overview of the FPGA Development
These days embedded engineers and FPGA programmers in particular are in high demand. These specialists’ services can be used in a wide variety of industries:
- Cloud services (network encryption, increasing video conversion)
- Programming (memory caching and deep learning tasks)
- Automotive industry (vision processing applications and portfolio creation)
- Military (different kinds of tracking equipment such as sensors and radars)
FPGA market is growing rapidly at the moment and is expected to hit the $18.8 billion mark by 2027. Currently, the market size value for FPGA has reached almost $10 billion as of 2020.
Typically, there are three programming languages used while dealing with FPGA technology: HDL, Verilog, and SystemVerilog. Each of these has its own features along with benefits and flaws that we will discuss below in the article.
FPGA Development Services: Pros and Cons
FPGA chips are a relatively new technology and its popularity is only growing. Most companies are only discovering these chips for themselves and get immediately won over by the list of benefits they are offering to any type of business. Let’s take a look at all the pros of FPGA engineering:
- Flexibility: as we have already mentioned, FPGA chips are quite flexible in terms of adjusting it to the needs of a particular project. With this in mind, you can easily create any application you need using this hardware tool
- Cost reduction: due to the FPGA chip’s high flexibility, it can now cover tasks that were previously done using ASIC technology. This leads to a considerable cost reduction as covering the same task with the assistance of an FPGA developer and this chip would cost you a thousand dollars at max, while the price for ASIC technology will only begin at that point
- Rapid growth: modern technologies are evolving at an enormous speed and hardware needs to keep up. With the case of FPGA, you will not have to worry about it not being able to catch up with the latest technologies
- Increased security: if you are worried about your data’s security then it makes perfect sense to invest in an FPGA engineer contractor recruitment
- Easier debugging: FPGA devices can be easily re-programmable which significantly speeds up the debugging process
However, before you hire FPGA developer, it is important that you learn about this technology’s flaws as well:
- While dealing with FPGA one would need to learn at least one of the three most common languages for this technology: HDL, Verilog, or SystemVerilog
- A fair share of modern devices has a large number of pins and quite a small pitch surface mount
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VHDL vs. Verilog for FPGA Design: Who Wins the Battle?
These are the two most common programming languages used by specialists who provide FPGA design services. But before we get to the comparison of them, let’s talk about each of these languages separately first.
VHDL Programming Language
VHDL or VHSIC Hardware Description Language is a programming language that is most commonly used to work with digital electronic hardware tools such as ASICs or FPGAs. VHDL coding can also be helpful in the case of conventional digital circuits programming. Unlike many other programming languages out there, VHDL programming is being internationally regulated and has high standards, documented by IEEE.
VHDL benefits:
- Great modularisation: it is easier and faster to scale up big projects
- It is perfect for simulation. The process of hardware development with VHDL is easier to fix if the bugs occur in the early stages
- It is a great language for those who used Ada or Pascal before as these two languages have much in common
- It is great to describe hardware on an abstract level
- It is possible to record and define custom types
VHDL flaws:
- It has been a while since the last update from IEEE
- It is really hard to use without an understanding of what digital circuits are
Verilog Programming Language
Just like VHDL, Verilog is a description language for hardware elements. This language is mostly being used for all types of analysis as well as logic synthesis. Verilog programming allows you to test your piece of hardware before launch and fix any bugs if necessary. This approach is a great way of saving time and money.
Verilog benefits:
- Verilog programmer can describe hardware down to the gate level
- It is compact and very similar to C
- Verilog coding allows you to use a single operator while performing a number of tests
- Verilog design allows easy mixing and matching signals
Verilog flaws:
- Familiarity with the schematic layout is a must
- There are no sensitivity lists
Language | Intended use | Standardization | Developer’s background | Industries that use the language |
VHDL | Hardware description down to the gate level | + | Computer programming | Aerospace, defense, education, government. |
Verilog | Hardware description on an abstract level | + | Schematic layout | Commercial, software development. |
As you see, each of these languages has pros and cons and you should choose according to your needs.
Reasons to Hire FPGA Programmers
More and more companies are trying to get an FPGA engineer on their team these days. Even having an FPGA developer remote specialist can add tremendous value to the project in terms of the production process’s flexibility. Before you decide to get assistance from a FPGA design company, you should make yourself familiar with such specialists’ main responsibilities:
- FPGA design outsourcing tasks as well as in-house ones
- Definition and coordination of the system’s interfaces
- Development and further performance of the necessary hardware tests
- Development of the test procedures for series production
- Fixing hardware issues
- Analyzing and predicting troubles that might occur during the development process
- Ensuring the reliability and compatibility of the development results by performing a regular system verification
- Keeping up with the agreed timeline
To successfully complete all these tasks an FPGA developer for hire must possess the following qualifications:
- Full proficiency in FPGA design tools and techniques
- Excellent communication skills
- Constant keeping up to date with modern technology trends
- Ability to think outside of the box
To get a full picture of what a perfect FPGA design engineer should be, let’s take a look at such an FPGA programmer resume sample.
FPGA Engineer Resume Sample
Benefits of Having a VHDL Design Engineer on Your Team
If you are considering using FPGA coding in your project, you have to think about getting a VHDL design specialist on your team. How could that be beneficial for you? First of all, by getting a VHDL developer on your team you are ensuring yourself a fast and easy simulation for your hardware tools. Another thing that a VHDL hardware engineer could assist you with is a wide variety of design schemes due to versatility of the VHDL language. Let’s take a look at the list of such specialist’s main responsibilities:
- VHDL coding for FPGAs tasks
- Support documentation creation
- Integration of the developed hardware pieces
- Creation of the tests to verify the quality level of the developed hardware
- Creation of the time estimates for the project
- Providing project updates to the manager
Apart from the duties of the VHDL design specialist, it is important to learn about the skills they must have:
- A relevant degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering
- A few years of post-graduate relevant experience in the field
- Strong debugging skills
- Skills of documentation generation
- Ability to work as a part of the team
Finally, let’s take a look at a VHDL design specialist’s resume sample.
FPGA Programmer Using VHDL Resume Sample
Why You Should Have a Verilog Coder on Your Team
The decision to hire Verilog developer might be one of the best you can make for your business. Such a specialist will help you make your code more compact and easy to read, significantly speeding the whole development process up. Before you hire a coder like this you need to take a look at the Verilog engineer resume first, to have an understanding of their responsibilities and necessary skills. Let’s see what a typical list of Verilog developer’s responsibilities would look like:
- Development of FPGA configurations (VHDL / Verilog for FPGA Altera)
- Firmware development for microcontrollers
- Testing and debugging of electronic systems
- Development, verification and maintenance of projects and IP cores
- Designing the architecture of modules, IP cores and FPGA projects
Successful completion of these tasks heavily depends on how many of these skills your Verilog developer has:
- Impeccable Verilog language knowledge
- Knowledge of Linux
- Understanding of how to work with Quartus
- Python/Tcl/Bash/C/C++ knowledge
- Ability to work as part of the team
- Multitasking and ability to meet deadlines
Verilog Engineer Resume Sample
Find Your Ideal FPGA Engineer at Mobilunity
A decision to hire VHDL developer in Ukraine is one of the most cost-effective ones. Need to find junior Scala developer or hire dedicated WordPress developer for your new development projects? Do not hesitate to contact Mobilunity’s expert team. Hire Scala developer for your projects today! Do not let low prices get you confused about the quality of Ukrainian developers’ or Polish software developers services as they are one of the best ones on the outsourcing and outstaffing market. The difference in rates is explained by currency rate numbers as they are considerably lower in this country. However, sometimes a VHDL programmer needed for a job is hard to find on your own. For this matter, many company owners turn to professionals such as Mobilunity. Out of all Ukrainian firms in the same industry, this company stands out due to its high level of professionalism and many years of experience. With Mobilunity you will be able to reach the desired result faster and times cheaper. However, these are not the only benefits you might encounter while working with Mobilunity:
- Fast recruitment. You will not need to wait for months for your team to start operating. The recruitment process takes usually 3-6 weeks.
- Convenient location. Mobilunity is convenient to travel to from any part of Europe due to its location in Kyiv.
- True professionals. Mobilunity can find true experts at FPGA design for you. Many years of experience and relevant certifications – this is the least you can expect from professionals Mobilunity will select according to your requirements.
- Smart costs. We offer fixed prices that include expenses such as taxes, office facilities, recruitment and onboarding of the approved candidate, expenses on their sick leaves and vacation, etc.
So if you need to hire FPGA programmers, do not hesitate to contact Mobilunity’s experts right away to get the best service possible!
Disclaimer: All salaries and prices mentioned within the article are approximate NET numbers based on the research done by our in-house Recruitment Team. Please use these numbers as a guide for comparison purposes only and feel free to use the contact form to inquire on the specific cost of the talent according to your vacancy requirements and chosen model of engagement.