Yes, VGA is really not very useful nowadays, but I think it is still a useful (student) project for FPGA beginners that is relatively easy to implement, more exciting than blinking an LED and can be built on for other things.
The downside of SPI (and to some degree 8080) screens is the low refresh rate / missing vsync. There are also screens with an RGB interface, which is then again similar to VGA but digital. But yes, this does not really require an FPGA and an ARM controller with RGB interface is probably much more useful for most applications. (Or even MIPI-DSI, but I have not used it myself so far.)
Still, I have a TFP410 lying around that I wanted to strap to my FPGA at some point to get something better than VGA.
> Still, the timing idea is overall correct as an FPGA-superpower.
And while this is especially true on FPGAs with dedicated hardware like a serdes or gearbox, one can still squeeze out a bit more on most FPGAs with DDR IO or several phase-shifted clocks.
The downside of SPI (and to some degree 8080) screens is the low refresh rate / missing vsync. There are also screens with an RGB interface, which is then again similar to VGA but digital. But yes, this does not really require an FPGA and an ARM controller with RGB interface is probably much more useful for most applications. (Or even MIPI-DSI, but I have not used it myself so far.)
Still, I have a TFP410 lying around that I wanted to strap to my FPGA at some point to get something better than VGA.
> Still, the timing idea is overall correct as an FPGA-superpower.
And while this is especially true on FPGAs with dedicated hardware like a serdes or gearbox, one can still squeeze out a bit more on most FPGAs with DDR IO or several phase-shifted clocks.