Developing Arduino Shields with an FPGA

For hobby use maybe .... but it's a lot of money for the full kit.

For pro use - no chance .... when I want to design in an FPGA I scope the system, decide on the FPGA (based on the task, production numbers, customer preferences etc) and then I design a board. (Might not do all these things myself if it's a big job).

There is no way I would use a little solder in type module when I can get free standing dev boards from the FPGA companies (if I want them) at anyhting from free ( as in beer) upwards.

I also think that the IndieGoGO site over-hypes the use of FPGAs, System Verilog is most certainly not much like C (get your head round begin/end, fork/join for starters) and programming an FPGA in SV is a very different task from writing  code for an Arduino or a micro in C. (I'm not saying that it can't be done for fun, just that it's a different kind of fun !).

I think most hobby types would do better to look at one of the little (and cheap) FPGA shields or the FPGA add on for the RPi.

MK

Michael Kellett wrote:

 

I also think that the IndieGoGO site over-hypes the use of FPGAs, System Verilog is most certainly not much like C (get your head round begin/end, fork/join for starters) and programming an FPGA in SV is a very different task from writing  code for an Arduino or a micro in C. (I'm not saying that it can't be done for fun, just that it's a different kind of fun !).

I agree with Michael's comments.  For learning about FPGAs, I'd most likely go with Papilio One 250K (US$38 for Xilinx Spartan-3E XC3S250E) and for more power Papilio Pro (US$85 for Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX9).  I also just read about an interesting San Diego State University FPGA project called Ahtlatl (an Aztec spear-thrower) also based on Spartan-6 that looks similar to Papilio Pro but perhaps with more I/O pins.  It's used in an SDSU course, and it seems the course materials are or will be available "for a few dollars more".

Regarding Helix-4 hype, I strongly disagree with them that FPGA design is easy to learn and (especially) master.  Even though C and Verilog have similar syntax, the design tradeoffs with FPGAs and software are totally different, and you need to approach problems in different ways for good results.  Duane Benson gave an excellent talk at Design West 2013 called "FPGAs: I know nothing... yet" which illustrated the steep learning curve newbies face when contronted with current design languages and FPGA tools.

I don't know what I'd do with the Helix-4 module.  I'd have to design a PC board to mount it or buy their large development board.  I'd rather get something I can plug directly into a RasPi or BeagleBone, or connect via USB like Papilio.

Michael Kellett wrote:

 

I also think that the IndieGoGO site over-hypes the use of FPGAs, System Verilog is most certainly not much like C (get your head round begin/end, fork/join for starters) and programming an FPGA in SV is a very different task from writing  code for an Arduino or a micro in C. (I'm not saying that it can't be done for fun, just that it's a different kind of fun !).

I agree with Michael's comments.  For learning about FPGAs, I'd most likely go with Papilio One 250K (US$38 for Xilinx Spartan-3E XC3S250E) and for more power Papilio Pro (US$85 for Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX9).  I also just read about an interesting San Diego State University FPGA project called Ahtlatl (an Aztec spear-thrower) also based on Spartan-6 that looks similar to Papilio Pro but perhaps with more I/O pins.  It's used in an SDSU course, and it seems the course materials are or will be available "for a few dollars more".

Regarding Helix-4 hype, I strongly disagree with them that FPGA design is easy to learn and (especially) master.  Even though C and Verilog have similar syntax, the design tradeoffs with FPGAs and software are totally different, and you need to approach problems in different ways for good results.  Duane Benson gave an excellent talk at Design West 2013 called "FPGAs: I know nothing... yet" which illustrated the steep learning curve newbies face when contronted with current design languages and FPGA tools.

I don't know what I'd do with the Helix-4 module.  I'd have to design a PC board to mount it or buy their large development board.  I'd rather get something I can plug directly into a RasPi or BeagleBone, or connect via USB like Papilio.