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  • Author Author: michaelkellett
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Cheap Entry into FPGA

michaelkellett

There's been quite  a lot of talk in the FPGA group about cheap ways to get started so a couple of weeks ago I decided to forsake the professional setup I use for real work and try one of the cheapest routes I could find. The idea was to try something as general purpose as possible and to keep clear of as much proprietary hardware and software as possible. That basically means using a simple board with the FPGA and very little else on it and using the FPGA manufacturer's free software.

 

All the FPGA manufacturers offer development boards and some of the simple ones from Lattice and Altera are quite cheap. Xilinx and MicroSemi don't get down to quite the same price level. There are third party boards at just about any level and the cheapest I can find with a real FPGA are based on Altera's Cyclone2 device.

There are several vendors for these on Aliexpress - this one is typical : ALTERA FPGA Cyslonell EP2C5T144 Minimum System Learning Board Development Board-in Other Electronic Components from Elec…

You'll pay about £10 with free shipping.

I bought mine in a bundle with a programmer from Etang Electronics on Amazon for £32.58 for the lot including shipping.

 

It looks like this:

 

image

 

And the good news is that it all works !

 

The Cyclone2 is a rather old design and although Altera still recommend it for new designs it isn't supported by the latest version of their design software. So when you download the software to develop code for it make sure to get version 13.0sp1. The part on the board is  a real FPGA with hardware multipliers, some embedded memory blocks and about 4000 logic elements. You get a voltage regulator, a 50MHz oscillator, a switch and three LEDs.

 

I've never used Altera's design software before so it took a little while to get round the quirks. There are one or two places where it seems to need to be told stuff it must already know (like where to find the simulator that was installed with it !) and it can generate test bench files but gives them an odd filename extension which you end up changing. There is a lot if support material on the web.

 

You get a free version of ModelSim for simulation and I found this to be the most difficult part - I expect mainly because I use a paid for version of a different simulator and have done for the last 10 years.

There is a free open source  VHDL simulator (GHDL) but it's reputation is not very good - so if you go this route you are stuck with ModelSim.

 

These boards are down at Arduino price levels so perfectly affordable for building in to projects.

 

If any one is interested I'll post some actual code that does something and if any one has an idea of a project they fancy using this board I'll be happy to discuss it.

 

MK

  • in reply to jw0752

    Hi John,

    I do respect your point and opinion on this matter. Thank you if you mean well, and I am sure you do.

    While your statements and that of might be true, admirable and even likeable and or helpful.

    I personally do not think these statements are inspiring to the greater "hungry for knowledge and broadening their perspective"

    and who join these platforms to exactly do that and whom one day even become great thinkers and contributors the the greater humanity.

     

    I am not gonna turn this into a debate of any nature. I have no fear nor do i really care what others think of

    comments,  markings I make and or my activities, nor those of others.

     

    Further, as to my response to your curious question: "Just out of curiosity, how was my comment on this piece helpful?" and your thoughts around it,

    while it is meant good, I am sure, it could scare off the newbie, beginner, enthusiast or even the odd expert of some sort. I believe in the dynamics of

    humanity and their interaction with each other, this is what drives true advancement of us all as a human race.

     

    To get back to your original question regarding my "Helpful" marking of your comment. This is where the human dynamics aspect has relevance, as your

    comments, never mind what it is, perhaps the way you worded it, or the use of language or simply the way you put it, truly made me pause, think and inspired me

    to actually research this topic of FPGA further and in more depth. And to my astonishment.....In the words of Aladdin....image "A whole new world....." for me and I am  hooked.....

    Who would have thought....

     

    So....... having said all that......

     

    In all good faith....let them be...Newbies, beginners, enthusiasts, experts.....or just the general Joe....they ALL have their own reasons and motivations and responsibilities

    for their own actions and activities being it here on this site or elsewhere, as long as it does not discriminate, hurt, kill anyone...imageimage

     

    I guess what i am trying to say....let us all just participate in any which way ....electrical engineering never was and never will be an island on its own.....

     

    Disclaimer:

    Everything said is with the greatest of respect, my own opinion and whatever MOVES ME. In no way implied or explicit is it meant to harm, disgrace, insult, undermine or infringe anybodies rights, integrity,

    and or any of the other politically correct constitutions.....

     

    No offense or Harm taken...neither intended

     

    Regards Frinds.

     

    Yunus Vollenhoven form Sunny and currently a very controversial South Africa......

  • in reply to clem57

    Hello Clem,

    I missed your question since I have turned off some of the E14 notifications and it's killing everything. I don't want to be notified for likes or helpfuls (see comments re point collecting above from John) - just real comments or replies - if anyone knows settings for that I'm listening.

     

    Back to FPGAs.

     

    I haven't played any more with the Altera stuff because all the new work in the last 12 months has been either:

    projects with:

    tiny Lattice ICE parts - several uses of the ICE5LP4k in 48 pin QFN

    biggish Xilinx Artix parts - my current big project will use an XC7A200T - 215k logic cells, 365 RAM blocks, 740 DSP slices and 1GByte external DDR3 RAM

     

    I've been prototyping the Xilinx project on an Arty board ($99) so if anyone is interested I can talk about that.

     

    MK

  • in reply to jw0752

    Good discussion guys.

     

    Unfortunately LIKE has been inherited from Facebook (and maybe other social media).

    It does have the advantage of visibility about who likes it.

     

    On the other hand helpful is an unknown (except in the inbox).

     

    I'd prefer that both gave points only to the other person, and therefor the 'points collectors' have no benefit.

     

     

    Mark

  • in reply to dougw

    Hi Doug,

    I agree to some extent and I do use a LIKE more often when I want to say thank you or acknowledge someones effort. For me however the HELPFUL means that some knowledge has actually been passed. If I have learned something new or a question that I have had has been answered then I feel that the helpful is warranted. Your post to me is a good example. I feel that it deserves a LIKE but nothing in it is something new about electronics for me so it will not get a HELPFUL. It is also obviously the case that not everyone else has to agree or use the same conventions. I mentioned it to Yunus as he has a lot of enthusiasm and this may be misread as points chasing by some of the guys.

    John

  • in reply to jw0752

    An interesting topic... I used to only rarely click Like or Helpful because I thought it would help promote better quality contributions if I only rewarded the highest quality input. I've changed though, not to get more points but to encourage more participation. I now generally use the basic rule if someone made some effort to write it down and I found it interesting enough to actually read it, it gets a like (unless I really don't like it) - to encourage and reward this level of effort. It takes a little more work to click on Like all the time, but I think it does have a positive effect. I know members like Michael are not concerned with points, but I am not about to discriminate and exclude anyone.