The goal of this course is the design of a camera control system. Its main focus is to demonstrate the application of the hardware description language VHDL in a real world setting. Of course, the problem has been heavily simplified, yet it is powerful enough to point out all main concepts of the language to the beginner. After completing the course you should feel comfortable writing VHDL code on your own.
The camera control system has to generate the appropriate signals for the lens shutter and the film transportation motor. It also generates the input signals for a small 7-segment display showing either the current exposure time or the total number of pictures taken so far. The user controls the camera operation via several keys.
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The central control system that is to be developed during this course is split into seven modules:
The clock frequency of the camera control is 8192 Hz. It allows for exposure times according to the following formula: 2^(-i) seconds (for i = 0..9). You need this information later on in order to implement the required times. The camera control system has to: