Recommend a beginners FPGA development kit

Barry,

Thank you for the reply.

The Spartan 3   boards are a little more thant $50 dollars from what I found. XILINX   - HW-SPAR3AN-SK-UNI-G

This one looks like a good   starter kit, what do you think? XILINX   - SK-CRII-L-G - CoolRunner-II CPLD Starter Kit

Cabe

Cabe - Lattice have a soft 8-bit and 32-bit processor

The 8-bit is at http://www.latticesemi.com/products/intellectualproperty/referencedesigns/8bitmicrocontrollermico8.cfm

They say "The core consumes minimal device resources, less than 200 Look Up Tables  (LUTs) in the smallest configuration, while maintaining a broad feature  set."

I checked their 32-bit soft core recently, and it would easily fit on something like a low-end, 5,000 LUT, XP2, e.g.

http://uk.farnell.com/lattice-semiconductor/lfxp2-5e-5tn144c/fpga-5k-luts-100-i-o-dsp-144tqfp/dp/1571999

which is in a DIY-able QFP (not BGA) package.

I think a key point is the toolchain.

Fortunately, you can download the tools for free and try them.

They should all come with a simulator. If it doesn't don't bother with it (my chums recommend beginners to debug designs using simulators, especially when on a low budget, i.e. few pieces of gtest equipment)

So your friend could futz around with the toolchain, without any hadware, and see what they like.

At the risk of diverting this thread from it's original focus (which is usually the nature of discussions) my comment about Altera's support is relative to Xilinx and Lattice support.  We are a small customer of all three, but Xilinx and Lattice are far superior in support.  If I post a support request on the Xilinx site I normally get a response within 24 hours.  For Altera I have waited days for any kind of response.  Lattice, being the little guy, seems to be the most responsive.  Also, Avnet, the Xilinx distributor, has an FAE who is very helpful.

Barry

I think that you point is probably the central motivator for the selection of a chip vendor.

I think you hit the nail on the head with your last comment about the FAE. If you have an excellent *local* FAE then you will get excellent support. This is my experience too. Our local Arrow office hired (stole) the local Altera FAE and so they can give same day customer support to some key clients in our city. This is why I'm cheering on Altera.

As an update to my BeMicro dev stick, I found the following webpages from its manufacturer:

BeMicro FPGA-stick:  http://www.hitex.com/index.php?id=1489&L=2//controllers/My

BeMicro SDK:  http://www.hitex.com/index.php?id=3180&L=2//controllers/My

You will find info about the prototyping expansion board, its connector and the software development kit.

Yes, I now see that the NIOS2 is not an ARM.

I was thinking about this webpage:

http://www.altera.com/products/ip/processors/32_16bit/ipm-index.jsp

The first item on the list is an M0 ARM core. The NIOS2 is the second to last item on the list.

My memory was foggy. I guess it needed a refresh.

My apologies.

Barry,

Diverting from the topic probably will not get the attention of Altera. Perhaps starting a separate post about Altera tech support is a good idea. For example "Altera tech support, your experiences?"

Cabe

It's hard to stay resist the embedded cpu's on Altera  because they make it so darn easy to put one into the FPGA.

I just finished watching these online demonstrations on this topic and now I want to stuff one into my BeMicro usb stick!

http://www.altera.com/education/demonstrations/online/embedded-processor/onl-nios2.html

Ezekiel,

Thanks for the suggestion of the Bemicro. I will definitely suggest that to my friend.

I, personally, wouldn't mind trying out everyone's suggestions in this thread. FPGA programming is a very useful skill to have.

Cabe

FYI, here is the Altera online forums:

http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/index.php

For beginners I recommend Altera DE1 Board Cyclone II FPGA Starter Board. It is cheap and includes an Altera Cyclone II 2C20 FPGA. This development Kit provides the user with a USB command controller, a multi-port SRAM/SDRAM/flash memory controller. It provides a software controller in C++. Some examples written in Verilog code.

For beginners I recommend Altera DE1 Board Cyclone II FPGA Starter Board. It is cheap and includes an Altera Cyclone II 2C20 FPGA. This development Kit provides the user with a USB command controller, a multi-port SRAM/SDRAM/flash memory controller. It provides a software controller in C++. Some examples written in Verilog code.

just to add to this, there are even cheaper Altera university program boards such as the DE0. I would definitely recommend this over the BEMICRO due to more I/Os (switches, LEDs, etc.) disclaimer: i work for Terasic, but its my honest opinion