Cheapest FPGA board to study VHDL on

Mark McDougall wrote:
> samiam wrote:
> 
> 
>>Ideally Id like an FPGA based board with a few inputs (dip
>>switches,toggles?), some outputs (parallel or serial connector, some
>>leds) < $100
> 
> 
> Altium LiveDesign (USD$99)
> 
> <http://www.altium.com/Products/AltiumDesigner/LiveDesign/>
> 
> Regards,
> 

http://www.knjn.com/ShopBoards_Parallel.html

In article <vHsZg.77479$p86.25317@fe05.news.easynews.com>, samiam
<samiamSPAMTHIS@spamalert.com> wrote:

> Figured this was the place to ask (comp.arch.embedded or comp.arch.fpga)
> 
> Whats the cheapest board to study VHDL on?
> 
> Ideally Id like an FPGA based board with a few inputs (dip 
> switches,toggles?), some outputs (parallel or serial connector, some
> leds) < $100

Digilent has a $59 board with a 100k-gate FPGA, switches, port
connectors, LEDs etc.
http://digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?Prod=BASYS
And check out their other boards to see how much more you can get with
further increments of money.

As it says, the board costs less than the textbook.

http://www.fpga4fun.com/ and the affiliated store http://www.knjn.com
also has a variety of lost-cost FPGA boards.

I think that seeing something work in reality is an important part of
learning, even though simulators give you more insight into what's
happening.  Otherwise you get to your first real design after a few
years of learning VHDL and then you ask 'what does non-synthesizable
mean?'

After all, if you never intend to implement your design on an FPGA,
what's the point in learning VHDL?

-- 
David M. Palmer  dmpalmer@email.com (formerly @clark.net, @ematic.com)

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 16:33:31 +0000, samiam wrote:

> Figured this was the place to ask (comp.arch.embedded or comp.arch.fpga)
> 
> Whats the cheapest board to study VHDL on?
> 
> Ideally Id like an FPGA based board with a few inputs (dip 
> switches,toggles?), some outputs (parallel or serial connector, some
> leds) < $100
> 
> I am looking on ebay now, and I see one or two boards well above $100.
> Any suggestions?
> 
> Thanks in advance

I pretty sure that xilinx has some spartan 3 starter boards for $100 too.
Look on their estore.

Mike Treseler wrote:

> To learn vhdl, all you need is a simulator
> to verify your uut and testbench code
> and quartus or ise to view the rtl schematic.
> 

That's true, but it's not much fun.

> A board is of little value until
> the code is complete and tested.
> 

You don't need a lot to get the code complete and compiled. You can 
learn a lot about testing by comparing what you meant it to do with what 
actually happens in the real world. And acquiring the skills of using 
the scope to debug hardware is a useful exercise in itself, if the OP 
doesn't know it already. And it's fun.

These people do some low- cost FPGA boards. You can probably get the 
VHDL stuff free from the FPGA vendor.

Paul Burke

David M. Palmer wrote:
> 
> I think that seeing something work in reality is an important part of
> learning, even though simulators give you more insight into what's
> happening.  Otherwise you get to your first real design after a few
> years of learning VHDL and then you ask 'what does non-synthesizable
> mean?'
> 
> After all, if you never intend to implement your design on an FPGA,
> what's the point in learning VHDL?
> 

I think that Andy got exactly the point:
> Unless you are trying to interface to something else, and need to prove
> that what you designed can talk to it, a simulator will "show" you much
> more than you will ever see from an FPGA board.

As far as I understood we are talking about "learning VHDL" (as samian 
asked), not implementing a project which will have an interface with 
some other stuff.
The only limitation in simulation is to think about all the cases your 
hardware will run through and this is where hardware is most probably 
needed, just because you missed to simulate a rare (but possible) case.
But on a stand alone project I think that an evaluation board is even 
less needed (even because most of the time you will not implement on 
evaluation board, but on custom made boards or some others "standard 
programmable" boards).
This will save you money and will let you concentrate on the most 
important point (to me) at the very beginning: functional vhdl verification.

Mike Treseler:
> To learn vhdl, all you need is a simulator
> to verify your uut and testbench code
> and quartus or ise to view the rtl schematic.
> 

and I totally agree.


-- 
Alessandro Basili
CERN, PH/UGC
Hardware Designer

samiam wrote:
> Whats the cheapest board to study VHDL on?
>
> Ideally Id like an FPGA based board with a few inputs (dip
> switches,toggles?), some outputs (parallel or serial connector, some
> leds) < $100

Any of the Digilent boards are great resources, and there are lots of
Univ classes designed around them.

They are all very affordable.

If you are a Univ student, I'd suggest getting the XUP-V2PRO board ...
best value on the planet, and amazing resale value :)

If you want to build projects which are FPGA based, I'd suggest
something like one of the Spartan boards ... combined with a proto
board. Get one with more gates than you need, don't skimp ... as most
of the MicroCore projects are fun later.

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 16:33:31 GMT, samiam <samiamSPAMTHIS@spamalert.com> wrote:

>Figured this was the place to ask (comp.arch.embedded or comp.arch.fpga)
>
>Whats the cheapest board to study VHDL on?
>
>Ideally Id like an FPGA based board with a few inputs (dip 
>switches,toggles?), some outputs (parallel or serial connector, some
>leds) < $100
>
>I am looking on ebay now, and I see one or two boards well above $100.
>Any suggestions?
>
>Thanks in advance

This is another low-cost option - not many IOs but easy to add your own on some protoboard : 
http://shop.trenz-electronic.de/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=81

Frank Buss <fb@frank-buss.de> writes:

> Petter Gustad wrote:
> 
> > Altera MAXII developers kit. I think this was $99 last time I
> > checked. It has LED's, USB, LCD display, temprature sensor, PCI, etc.
> 
> Do you mean this board?
> 
> http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/altera/kit-maxii-1270.html
> 
> Looks like it costs $150 and it is an CPLD, only. And do you need an
> additional programmer for it? If you want to try Altera and want to spend

A byteblaster II prgramming cable is included. I got the board for $99
once. Maybe it was a special deal. The MAXII is a CPLD, but looks much
like an FPGA even though there is an internal FLASH for configuration
and user data.

The Spartan3 is a nice starter kit as well.

Petter
-- 
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

"jacko" <jackokring@gmail.com> writes:

> i'm thinking of getting the MAX II $100 board too. can it work external
> to the pc or pci only. does it auto program, can it be used to program
> other cpld and can the display be made external off board, for case
> mounting? i'd have to revert to on board gfx again as no free pci while
> agp in use.

It can be powered by USB so you don't need to have it in your PCI slot
unless you will be designing some PCI logic. I don't know what you
mean by autoprogram, but you download the programming file into the
internal FLASH in the MAXII. When you power it on it will load the
configuration from there. You can use it to program other devices, but
that will require you to design some logic. Actually I use the board
to program some microcontrollers over USB.

Petter
-- 
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

samiam wrote:
> Figured this was the place to ask (comp.arch.embedded or comp.arch.fpga)
>
> Whats the cheapest board to study VHDL on?
>
> Ideally Id like an FPGA based board with a few inputs (dip
> switches,toggles?), some outputs (parallel or serial connector, some
> leds) < $100
>
> I am looking on ebay now, and I see one or two boards well above $100.
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks in advance

The Digilent/Xilinx Spartan 3 Starter Kit is $99, and should do
everything you want.

Leon