[jleahy]

I wouldn't get too hung up on the phrase 'IP core', it's basically the equivalent of a software library. A reusable chunk of silicon or verilog.

If you want to know about how chips are made then I'd highly recommend the book "CMOS Circuit Design and Simulation" by Baker. It's starts off telling you how silicon is etched to make chips, then goes through how MOSFETs work and how to simulate them using SPICE. By the time you're half way through the book you'll know how a static CMOS logic gate works (down to the electrons).

If you'd rather learn something that you'll be able to apply yourself (without building a chip fab) then the place to start is Verilog (or VHDL). asic-world.com has some good tutorials. You can simulate what you've written using Icarus verilog and look at the results using GTKwave. If it works in simulation and you want to put it onto a real FPGA it's then just a matter of fighting the Xilinx/Altera/Lattice tools until then give you a bitstream. If you have enough money (a lot) you could even get a physical ASIC manufactured.

[yogrish]

Well said on IPCORES. IPCORES are like sw librarians implemented in hardware in order to accelerate the performance. For example you frequently hear cores like JPEG, H264, HEVC and other signal poricessing or enctryption cores. Basically with HW IP cores, the performance is realtime.

[_benj]

> then just a matter of fighting the Xilinx/Altera/Lattice tools until then give you a bitstream

Haha! So true :-) I have to give some credit to Altera tho because after sort of step learning curve you can start generating "IP Cores" with QSys and Tcl scripts to stop clicking on the same icons all day long!

[sliverstorm]

But, if you want to make a high performance netlist, I'd argue you want to know all about logic gates, Boolean math, and all the rest. HDL stands for "hardware description language", and you'll only write good HDL if you know what you're writing looks like in gates.

(Though if you're just making an LED blink when you push a button, you don't need to write good HDL)

[dreamcompiler]

Seconded. The way FPGAs work internally is not really how gate-based (dedicated) chips work internally. FPGAs simulate gates with static RAM tables.

[pslam]

> If you want to know about how chips are made then I'd highly recommend the book "CMOS Circuit Design and Simulation" by Baker.

This is a ~$120 book. Do you (or anyone else) have a recommendation for something a little easier to tell hobbyists they should get?

[AlfonsoP]

The book PDF is here: https://www.u-cursos.cl/usuario/9553d43f5ccbf1cca06cc02562b4...

Or buy a used second edition at $20: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/047170055X/

[hak8or]

It depends on what sort of asic stuff fyou want to do, meaning digital or analog.

Adanced chip design by kishore Mishra is very good and like 50 bucks last I remember.

If I were you, I would just look at Amazon reviews and buy whatever looks decently rated and is avalible for cheap used.

[lomereiter]

Look for Indian editions (their students obviously can't afford American-priced books), these usually have a marker on the cover saying it's not to be distributed outside Indian subcontinent, but it stops no one.