What We Can Learn From Programming FPGAs

Francis Glassborow

⏱ 90 minute session
intermediate
advanced
11:00-12:30, Saturday, 20th June 2026

In this talk I will address the ways in which Hardware Design Languages can extend our understanding of programming. HDLs focus on the fundamental design of logical circuits to achieve an objective such as making a burglar alarm to complex tasks such as creating hardware that will, for example, behave like a PDP11. HDLs share a great deal with software programming languages such as C and C++. The differences are instructive.


🏷 general purpose logic gates
🏷 look-up (truth) tables
🏷 dataflow model
🏷 structural model
🏷 behavioral model

Francis Glassborow

Francis Glassborow is a long retired octogenarian mathematics teacher and computer programming enthusiast. He has used a multitude of computer languages and has a lifetime fascination with natural languages. In both cases he is interested in the contrast between languages and the way they express ideas. In the late 1980s he was influential in taking the then C User Group(UK) into the long lived ACCU that many know and love. As well as being the editor of CVu for over a decade he has also been a regular contributor to that publication. In the late 1990s he founded the ACCU Conference which has continued to flourish since he stepped aside as its Chair some time in the noughties.