Cheapest way to learning/experimenting FPGA

[Guest]

I'm new to FPGA and would like to learn how to program/use FPGA in cost
effective way.
What would be your recommendation ?

 

[The Man With The Harmonica \(formerly MNQ\)]

I'm new to FPGA and would like to learn how to program/use FPGA in cost
effective way.
What would be your recommendation ?

Hi Fpga

Look at the xilinx web site at www.xilinx.com they have a number of
development boards for CPLD and FPGA's plus you can download the software
for their development and simulation for free. I have bought the Coolrunner
development board and found it quite useful for relearning VHDL.

Naveed

 

[The Man With The Harmonica \(formerly MNQ\)]

That board only runs with windosh ex-pee.
Anyone do same thing for GNU/Linux?

Hi 7

I thought Xilinx did their development software for Linux and Unix systems?
check this link http://www.xilinx.com/ise/marketing/new.htm

Naveed

 

[Jason Tang]

Hi 7

I thought Xilinx did their development software for Linux and Unix systems?
check this link http://www.xilinx.com/ise/marketing/new.htm

Naveed

The ISE Foundation and ISE BaseX versions run under Linux. However,
they are not free ($650 - $2500). And for that price, you may want to
evalute both Xilinx ISE and Altera's Quartus (which also runs under
Linux) before deciding which is best for you.

The FREE ISE WebPack only runs under Windows.

I do, however, remember hearing of some people having success running
earlier ISE WebPack versions under WINE in Linux. That may be a
possible alternative.

Jason

 

[Alex Gibson]

That board only runs with windosh ex-pee.
Anyone do same thing for GNU/Linux?

Look in comp.arch.fpga the thread
Announcing JOLT - Yet Another Xilinx Programming Tool


there is now a tool for programming fpgas from
linux without having to run wine.
http://www.science-and-technology.nl/research/jolt/
Supposedly works fine with the new xilinx spartan3 starter kit.

Will still have to run wine for design and implementing in webpack.

For those that don't know

fpga - field programmable gate array
(large programmable logic chip)
A programmable logic chip in a high density of gates. There are a variety
of FPGA architectures including programmable logic blocks, programmable
interconnects and switches between the blocks.

or

High density PLD containing small logic cells interconnected through a
distributed array of programmable switches. This type of architecture
produces statistically varying results in performance and functional
capacity, but offers high register counts. Programmability typically is via
volatile SRAM or one-time-programmable antifuses.

cpld - complex programmable logic device
CPLDs are a class of programmable logic devices. They feature the speed,
design simplicity, and predictability of PALs. Conceptually, they consist of
PAL-like function blocks that can be interconnected through a switch matrix.

pal - programmable array logic

Wine - windows gui emulator for linux
latest versions can run most of the xilinx webpack.

Xilinx webpack - free cpld / pfga software that runs on windows.
nonfree versions run on windows , linux , solaris.
http://www.xilinx.com/xlnx/xebiz/designResources/ip_product_details.jsp?key=DS-ISE-WEBPACK

Altera also have a free version of their software Quartus II web edition
https://www.altera.com/support/software/download/altera_design/quartus_we/dnl-quartus_we.jsp

Alex Gibson

 

[Guest]

I'm new to FPGA and would like to learn how to program/use FPGA in cost
effective way.
What would be your recommendation ?

The book "Digital Design, Principles and Practices" by John F Wakerly
(Prentice Hall) came as a package with the Xilinx "Foundation Series"
student edition for something round the $100 mark. I don't know
anything about current availability or price of this bundle but it was
pretty good value at one stage. The license requires online registration
and will expire after some time (12 months I think but don't quote me)
also the student edition is a bit crippled, from memory there is a limit
on the gate count. The book comes with no hardware, just software but
the software knows how to drive a JTAG off your PC parallel port which
you can build yourself.

UTS has a course where the students built up a kit that connected
to the PC parallel port and it had a small 3.3v FPGA chip with some
buffers to implement a simple JTAG. I don't know if the circuit
diagram is available but maybe a bit of research or some other poster
might be able to point you at suitable hardware.

No linux support in the edition I looked at -- I ran it under Win-98
and it worked pretty smoothly.

It gives you enough to learn about and play with but you would need
something else for any real project.

- Tel

 

[The Man With The Harmonica]

The book "Digital Design, Principles and Practices" by John F Wakerly
(Prentice Hall) came as a package with the Xilinx "Foundation Series"
student edition for something round the $100 mark. I don't know
anything about current availability or price of this bundle but it was
pretty good value at one stage. The license requires online registration
and will expire after some time (12 months I think but don't quote me)
also the student edition is a bit crippled, from memory there is a limit
on the gate count. The book comes with no hardware, just software but
the software knows how to drive a JTAG off your PC parallel port which
you can build yourself.

UTS has a course where the students built up a kit that connected
to the PC parallel port and it had a small 3.3v FPGA chip with some
buffers to implement a simple JTAG. I don't know if the circuit
diagram is available but maybe a bit of research or some other poster
might be able to point you at suitable hardware.

No linux support in the edition I looked at -- I ran it under Win-98
and it worked pretty smoothly.

It gives you enough to learn about and play with but you would need
something else for any real project.

Try the following link
https://digilent.us/sales/Product.cfm?Prod=jtag3

Naveed

 

[Phil]

Elektor electronics magazine May 2004
has an experimentors board forAttera CPLD

www.elektor-electronics.co.uk

 

[Guest]

Check this page https://digilent.us/Education/videos.html

 

[dh]

I'm new to FPGA and would like to learn how to program/use FPGA in cost
effective way.
What would be your recommendation ?

Go to http://www.fpga4fun.com and look at the $50 Pluto board. That's
probably the very cheapest way to get into using a real FPGA (not
CPLD). There are also many nice little projects on the site that you
can use with the board. Serial, LCD, encoders, video signal, Ethernet,
digital oscilloscope (with addition of simple A/D board) etc.

The Dragon PCI board also appears pretty feature-packed and easy to
interface to, compared to a lot of other PCI FPGA board vendors I
could name who use really obscure connectors so they can sell you
their own expansion modules.

 

[Alex Gibson]

What is this web edition from both companies!?
Does it need web connection to run?
Does it pass any design information back through this web connection?
Sorry just being totally paranoid - no one likes their
designs stolen.

No its the free versions of their software that can be
downloaded from their websites after you have registered with them.

Also can order a cd from xilinx or one of their local distributors.

No it doesn't need a web connection to run.

Alex

 

[Alex Gibson]

The book "Digital Design, Principles and Practices" by John F Wakerly
(Prentice Hall) came as a package with the Xilinx "Foundation Series"
student edition for something round the $100 mark. I don't know
anything about current availability or price of this bundle but it was
pretty good value at one stage. The license requires online registration
and will expire after some time (12 months I think but don't quote me)
also the student edition is a bit crippled, from memory there is a limit
on the gate count. The book comes with no hardware, just software but
the software knows how to drive a JTAG off your PC parallel port which
you can build yourself.

UTS has a course where the students built up a kit that connected
to the PC parallel port and it had a small 3.3v FPGA chip with some
buffers to implement a simple JTAG. I don't know if the circuit
diagram is available but maybe a bit of research or some other poster
might be able to point you at suitable hardware.

No linux support in the edition I looked at -- I ran it under Win-98
and it worked pretty smoothly.

It gives you enough to learn about and play with but you would need
something else for any real project.

- Tel

Only use the software that comes with the book if your running
windows 98 (equivalent to ise4.1 or 4.2).

It doesn't work with windows 2000 or windows xp.
Use the latest webpack, request/order a cd from xilinx or their local
distributor.
In Australia www.memec.com.au

There is no licnese fee for the software with the book and it doesn't
run out. Neither does the starter license for modelsim xe you can get for
free from xilinx.
For details see http://xup.msu.edu/

On the board for the subject is a cpld xilinx xc9572xl
as well as pic 16f877 and a pic12f675 as a programmable oscillator
leds, seven segment displays,rotary encoder,max232, speaker and a 16x2 lcd.
No the circuit diagrams aren't available.

One that is, is http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller/pld_starter.html
only thing with this one is it is very easy to blow the cpld .
Easier to use a two pin crystal.
Should be able to use a xc9572 in this board as well.
Would recommend putting a diode bridge
and regulator on the circuit as well.

The xc9572xl's are quite cheap is you buy a few, approx around US$2 each.

xc9572 / xc9536 are 5V and more expensive
xc9572xl / xc9536xl are 3V3 and a bit cheaper

Need to make a simple parallel port to jtag cable
to program the devices.

Other sites are
http://tutor.al-williams.com/
www.fpga4fun.com
www.digilentinc.com
http://www.fpga-faq.com/

http://www.fpga-faq.com/ made old style arcade games in fpga's

Xilinx sell a coolrunner2 cpld starter kit for US$50 + p&h
http://www.xilinx.com/xlnx/xil_prodcat_product.jsp?title=design_kit
or spartan3 starter kit (200k gate fpga) for US$99 + p&h
http://www.xilinx.com/products/spartan3/s3boards.htm

These are made for xilinx by Digilentinc.com


Alex Gibson

 

[Guest]

" http://www.fpga4fun.com " it is so cool!... It must be seen !...
How one can resist not to order few boards from this site?


But unfortunatelly both the Dragon board and Flashy are out of stock.
Will they appear on the shop again? (If yes, when ? How much they cost?)
Would it be possible to connect Flashy to Dragon for faster data transfer
via PCI (or USB) from FIFO to PC?
How can the FIFO size be extpanded to 4K samples?

 

[Chris S.]

I'm new to FPGA and would like to learn how to program/use FPGA in cost
effective way.
What would be your recommendation ?

I'm not personally into fpga's, but someone once recommended to me
www.opencores.org as a decent resource for open source hardware.

 

[en]

How about Xess ? http://www.xess.com/

I'm not personally into fpga's, but someone once recommended to me
www.opencores.org as a decent resource for open source hardware.