Designing an FPGA Calculator from Scratch

This article series documents the design and implementation of an FPGA-based calculator inspired by the HP-41CV, covering the complete development process from initial concept through hardware prototyping to CPU architecture and microcode implementation. The author uses a multi-stage approach including numerical method verification, cross-platform software simulation frameworks, PCB design, custom instruction set architecture, and microcode development to build a fully functional calculator. The project demonstrates practical techniques for testing hardware designs across simulation environments before physical implementation.