fpga beginner board - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 19, 2014, 02:37:01 pm
content: I'm a total beginner with fpgas and i would like some advice on what board to buy to start experimenting.I am an EE student so for some board i may have some discount (not on the digilent site, i am not an US student). My budget is 100 dollar.I found:http://numato.com/elbert-v2-spartan-3a-fpga-development-board: 30 dollar or 20 with acadamec discounthttp://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,400,790&Prod=BASYS2: 90 dollarand the three papilio board:http://store.gadgetfactory.net/papilio-one-250k/: 38 dollarhttp://store.gadgetfactory.net/papilio-one-500k/: 65 dollarhttp://store.gadgetfactory.net/papilio-pro/: 85 dollarThe numato lab one is the cheaper but has only spi flash programming and a 50K fpga .The digilent board is similar at the numato but has jtag and a 100K fpga.The papilio boards have only a bigger fpga or external ram but lacks all the interfaces (vga, seven segment display, leds, etc..) so for the price i don't think they are a good investement.I'm looking only at xlinx spartan 3/6 because i would like to make some custom fpga pcb and the xilinx parts are available at my current supplier and don't cost a fortune.Thanks for the help.

author: Unixon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2014, 03:48:03 pm
content: If you aren't low on money, pick the fattest FPGA you can afford with all required interfaces and auxiliary on-board devices.All of boards listed above are under $100 anyway.But honestly I would finish and test my design in simulator before buying any boards at all.

author: Dongulus
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2014, 04:45:09 pm
content: Where are you located?

author: legacy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2014, 06:06:07 pm
content: choosing the right fpga board depends on your purpose.in my case i am developing a MIP1 SoC andpapilio-prois exactly what i need because it has a big spartan6 with has* enough BRAM for my fill-in SoC firmware* a built in SDRAM controllerand also the board comes with a soldered big SRAM of 64Mbyte and little IO expansion.I only needed to plug-in two uart<->usb adaptors (FTDI breakout) for "user uart port" and "debug uart port".that's perfect at all, definitively!Quote from: exapod on August 19, 2014, 02:37:01 pmSparkfun has a breakout board equipped with Spartan3E-500 @ 50Mhz, unfortunately it went out-of-stock and then EOL, but there is still a guy on ebay who is selling similar breakout boards at cheap prices, also making you to choose if you prefer 80Mhz, 40Mhz, 50Mhz, and spartan3e-500 or spartan3e-250. I have bought a tiny 250KLE board and it's fine.

author: Scrts
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2014, 08:57:09 pm
content: Take DE0-nano into account. You're targeting really old Spartan-3E/3A FPGAs... I would offer you to have a look at Altera SoCKit, It's kinda expensive with your budget, but it's really great!

author: miguelvp
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2014, 03:12:13 am
content: Quote from: Dongulus on August 19, 2014, 04:45:09 pm@exapod, you should answer his question, you never know why he is asking you that

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 20, 2014, 09:10:55 am
content: Quote from: Dongulus on August 19, 2014, 04:45:09 pmItaly.

author: legacy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2014, 12:01:49 pm
content: what is your purpose about fpga project ?

author: Dongulus
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2014, 03:20:40 pm
content: Quote from: miguelvp on August 20, 2014, 03:12:13 amAlso, what's your address, phone number, and bank account number. I promise it's nothing nefarious.Anyway, the reason I asked is because I've had a Nexys 2 I've been looking to sell away reasonably cheap. Unfortunately the shipping cost to Italy would be prohibitively expensive.