I architected an application-specific custom processor with about 25 instructions and implemented about 20% of it on an FPGA (the rest 80% was implemented by ot

I architected an application-specific custom processor with about 25 instructions and implemented about 20% of it on an FPGA (the rest 80% was implemented by other team members). I also created software tools for this. While this was not a toy processor per say (it was a part of a bigger project), I consider it toy-like because of the simple instruction set. Writing and debugging was not a major pain point in this case. Generally speaking though, I have been fairly satisfied with logic design tools for ASICs, though not as much for FPGAs. I later discovered CAD tools built specifically for designing processors. Google ASIP [1] for more if interested. Regarding this making me a better coder, well no, since I was already a good coder. :-) OK, I learned machine code at the age of 15 years, and so already had good insights into how stuff works inside when I learned C and C++. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application-specific_instruction-set_processor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application-specific_instructio...