1st FPGA Cypress CY7C68013A-128 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: ashley.hughes
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2013, 07:47:28 am
content: Hey all,I have been wanting to get a FPGA for a while but the price was off putting.I have found this on eBayhttp://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Cypress-CY7C68013A-EZ-USB-FX2LP-USB2-0-Develope-Board-Microcontroller-High-speed-/260871850279?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cbd2c8927#ht_2235wt_953I have purchased some other products of this seller that have worked fine.I know there is a big learning curve from AVRs to FPGA and they are used for different things. But for $30 if it entertains me for a few days money well spent and Im studying electrical engineering so I am sure it will come in handy eventuallyMy question is what software would I use to program it, as I believe the software packages aren't always free.

author: krenzo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2013, 08:59:28 am
content: What makes you think that's an FPGA? Cypress' site says it's a microcontroller.

author: saigai
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2013, 09:29:09 am
content: Here's a cheap bare-bones FPGA board, combined with an usb blaster. You might find them for even cheaper, if purchased separately.http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150961273878I have one, it works fine with the free Quartus Web edition. It has nothing special on board, just some leds and a  button, but that's all you need to get started.

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2013, 09:41:04 am
content: Not as cheap as the other alternatives, but with a lot of support circuitry on board and buffered I/O:http://www.micro-nova.com/mercury

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2013, 12:00:22 pm
content: That's definitely not an FPGA.It's the same MCU used in logic analysers such as Saleae and clones, although this one is mounted on a more featureful board.

author: DaveW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2013, 12:31:47 pm
content: For learning FPGAs, have a look at the Free Range site, they do an introduction to VHDL, a synthesizer & board,http://www.freerangefactory.org/site/index.phpI haven't tried their board, but the book is very good and the synthesizer is coming on nicely. If you just want a cheap FPGA board, have a look at the boards from Seeed Studios, very good prices for barebones FPGA stuff. Or if you'd rather go for something a bit more professional, the Terasic Nano boards are fantastic,http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?No=593I used these with "Rapid Prototyping of Digital Systems" to practice using FPGAs,http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0387726705/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

author: ashley.hughes
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2013, 11:22:52 pm
content: I was looking at the Mercury board a while ago off some one else's post on this forum.Also the Free range board looks nice as it comes with a book with some tutorials.Really depends on how much the postage will cost. Thanks for all the help and ideas

author: HardBoot
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2013, 11:39:46 am
content: Xilinx, Altera... Who has the best free graphical logic design suite? Both do VHDL/Verlog no problem, but...I've quickly learned that describing what I want to do in VHDL is far too complicated because it's a mess of gate level stuff.My dream come true would be a more advanced form ofhttp://ozark.hendrix.edu/~burch/logisim/Which just happens to be where I sketched up some things I want to put into CPLD/FPGA.

author: deephaven
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2013, 11:52:56 am
content: Quote from: HardBoot on January 09, 2013, 11:39:46 amI can't speak for Xilinx because I've never used them. I've used Altera and am very impressed with their Quartus design suite. It is easy to create schematic designs and mix/match them with VHDL/Verilog if you ever wanted to. If you use a pre V10 copy of Quartus, it has a very easy to use simulator, so you can try out your design without any hardware. Later versions of Quartus provide simulator support but it is a steeper learning curve.