An application of FPGA to high-speed programmable controller: development of the conversion program from SFC to Verilog

The high-speed programmable controller (PC) is required in factory automation (FA). Recently, field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) are expected to be used for high-speed PC. Programming languages for a current PC are Ladder Diagram or Sequential Function Chart (SFC). On the other hand, programming languages for a FPGA are VHDL or Verilog-HDL. The authors have therefore developed a conversion program from SFC to Verilog-HDL. The paper reports on the conversion program.