HomeFPGA Neural Network Accelerator
🔥 New Course · FPGA + AI · 15 Days

FPGA Neural Network
Accelerator from Scratch

Build a production-grade CNN inference accelerator on FPGA — from fixed-point arithmetic to systolic arrays, Vitis AI deployment, and real edge AI systems. No shortcuts.

15
Deep-Dive Days
60K+
Words of Content
100+
Diagrams & Waveforms
Free
No Paywall
Fixed-Point MathMatrix MultiplySystolic ArrayCNN PipelineHLS / Vitis AIEdge Deployment
Why This Course
Why FPGA for Neural Networks?
Every ML engineer knows PyTorch. Almost none know how to actually build the hardware that runs it. This course bridges that gap.

⚡ 10–100× Better Latency

FPGAs offer deterministic sub-millisecond inference latency — critical for autonomous vehicles, robotics, and real-time video analytics.

🔋 10–50× Power Efficiency

Edge AI on an FPGA at 5–25W vs a GPU at 250–400W. For battery-powered devices, there's no competition.

🎛️ Full Hardware Control

Customize precision (INT4, INT8, FP16), dataflow, memory layout — tailored to your exact neural network architecture.

🏭 Production-Ready Skills

Xilinx Vitis AI, Intel OpenVINO FPGA, and custom DPU designs are in high demand at Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Apple, and defense contractors.

15-Day Course
All 15 Days — Day by Day
Each day is 4,000–5,000 words with diagrams, waveforms, equations, real chip examples, and production checklists.
Day 1
FPGA vs GPU vs CPU for AI Inference
Why FPGAs win on latency and power. Architecture comparison, roofline model applied to inference hardware, real benchmarks: Xilinx Alveo vs A100 GPU.
FPGA ArchitectureRoofline ModelLatencyPower Efficiency
Start Day 1 →
🔢
Day 2
Fixed-Point Arithmetic & Quantization
Why FP32 is wasteful on FPGA. INT8/INT4 Q-format, quantization error analysis, scale factors, overflow handling, and a pipelined 8-bit MAC unit in Verilog.
Fixed-PointINT8QuantizationQ-Format
Start Day 2 →
✖️
Day 3
Matrix Multiply Accelerator
Tiled GEMM engine: 4×4 MAC array, DSP48 packing (2× throughput), output-stationary dataflow, tiling loop controller, and complete Verilog + testbench.
MAC ArrayDSP48 PackingGEMMTiling
Start Day 3 →
🔲
Day 4
Systolic Array Architecture
TPU-style systolic array on FPGA. Weight-stationary dataflow, PE design, skewed activation feeding, timing diagram, and 4×4 Verilog using generate/genvar.
Systolic ArrayWeight-StationaryPE DesignTPU-style
Start Day 4 →
🧠
Day 5
Convolution Engine for CNNs
2D convolution hardware: sliding window logic, line buffers, kernel weight storage, im2col transformation, and a full 3×3 conv engine with BRAM buffering.
Conv2DLine Bufferim2colBRAM
Coming Soon
💾
Day 6
Memory Architecture — BRAM vs DDR
On-chip BRAM vs off-chip DDR4. Memory bandwidth bottleneck analysis, ping-pong buffering, double buffering, AXI4 master interface for DDR access.
BRAMDDR4AXI4Ping-Pong
Coming Soon
📊
Day 7
Activation Functions in Hardware
ReLU, Leaky ReLU, Sigmoid, Softmax — synthesizable hardware. LUT-based approximations, CORDIC for complex functions, pipelined activation units.
ReLUSigmoidCORDICLUT Approx
Coming Soon
🏊
Day 8
Pooling Layers & Normalization
Max pooling, average pooling, global average pooling hardware. Batch normalization approximation, running mean/variance, and fused BN+ReLU design.
Max PoolingBatch NormFused LayersHardware BN
Coming Soon
🚀
Day 9
Pipelining & Parallelism
Layer-by-layer pipelining, inter-layer FIFOs, throughput vs latency trade-off, data parallelism vs model parallelism, and pipeline stall analysis.
PipeliningFIFOParallelismThroughput
Coming Soon
🔧
Day 10
HLS with Vitis HLS
Write CNN layers in C++, synthesize to RTL with Vitis HLS. PIPELINE, UNROLL, ARRAY_PARTITION pragmas, co-simulation, and latency/area reports.
Vitis HLSC++ to RTLPragmasCo-sim
Coming Soon
🎯
Day 11
Vitis AI — DPU Deployment
AMD/Xilinx DPU IP core, vai_q_pytorch quantization, Vitis AI compiler, runtime on Zynq/Kria. Deploy ResNet-50 on FPGA in under 10ms latency.
Vitis AIDPUQuantizationResNet
Coming Soon
🌿
Day 12
Power Optimization for Edge AI
Dynamic power reduction on FPGA: clock gating, partial reconfiguration, voltage scaling, sleep modes. Targeting <5W for IoT/automotive edge AI.
Clock GatingPartial ReconfigEdge AI5W Budget
Coming Soon
🔄
Day 13
Transformer Attention on FPGA
Self-attention mechanism in hardware: QKV matrix multiply, softmax approximation, multi-head attention parallelism. BERT/ViT inference on Alveo.
AttentionTransformerBERTMulti-Head
Coming Soon
📈
Day 14
Benchmarking & Profiling
Measure FPGA inference throughput (TOPS), latency, power. Compare against GPU/CPU baselines. MLPerf benchmark methodology for edge AI systems.
TOPSMLPerfBenchmarksProfiling
Coming Soon
🏭
Day 15
Production Edge AI Systems
Real-world deployment: Xilinx Kria KV260, Intel Arria + OpenVINO, FPGA in autonomous vehicles (Mobileye), medical imaging, and HFT applications.
Kria KV260OpenVINOAutonomousProduction
Coming Soon