[wmu]

I'm a low-level programmer and it's the first time I come across the linear-feedback shift register. I would say it's rather a part of digital circuits design.

Now, when FPGAs become more and more popular, people will be forced to learn VHDL languages and then different lesser-known techniques will surface. (It's a naive prediction, I know.)

[thesimon]

>Now, when FPGAs become more and more popular, people will be forced to learn VHDL languages and then different lesser-known techniques will surface.

Isn't that already part of a normal CS degree? We needed to learn VHDL to program a Atmel ATTiny for class.

[maffydub]

Are you sure you learnt VHDL? As I understood it, the ATTiny isn't an FPGA but an 8-bit microcontroller.

Learning some form of assembly language at university is (probably) reasonably common.

Learning VHDL (for programming FPGAs) is less common - I did for my Computer Science degree, but this was about 15 years ago, so I don't know if it's still common.

[ctw]

Just one data point, but I'm currently at school for Computer Engineering and we learn and use VHDL and Verilog for several courses. We use it to program Altera FPGA's.

[maffydub]

Glad to hear it's still being taught! I was using Altera FPGAs too, although I suspect they're quite a lot higher gate count now. (My second year project was an FPGA implementation of the EDSAC computer from the 1940s - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_delay_storage_autom...)