Hi Andy,

Wow. Thanks for another great post. If you keep this up, I may have to drive to Tucson and buy you a taco.

I sort of knew in the back of my mind that I need to break out the simulator and figure out how to use it. But I've sort of been putting it off because, you know, there are few things more gratifying to a young boy's heart than an array of flashing LEDs.

Seriously, I think you're right that I need to abandon the hardware for a while and learn how to write a test bench. A couple of related questions:

1. The freebie Xilinx ISE software came with an integrated simulator. I also grabbed the special Xilinx edition of ModelSim from the Xilinx website, but I haven't done anything with it yet. How would a guy pick one of these over the other?


2. Do you think the little counter module we've been talking about is about the right size and complexity for a first attempt at a test bench?

Thanks,

-- Russ