On Wed, 2005-10-26 at 15:37 -0400, Mario Mendes Jr. wrote:
> Can anyone recommend an FPGA book, website, dev board for someone with
> limited electronics experience (me)?  Not expensive is key.
> 
> Limited electronics experience -> self taught, good with digital circuits
> but couldn't design much analog stuff from scratch without help.  I can
> build pic circuits and program them, but couldn't create a sawtooth
> generator.

If you're completely new to the world of programmable logic I'd start
with a CPLD dev kit. CPLDs are simpler by nature and a little easier to
get your head around. Also there are some available in hobbyist friendly
packages.

After the dev kit you'll need to learn an HDL (hardware description
language). There are two out there: VHDL and Verilog. VHDL is the
oldtimer, it's been around for ages. Verilog is newer and I personally
find it FAR easier to learn then VHDL.

My recommendation? Go with a dev kit from Xilinx (one of the larger
FPGA/CPLD manufacturers). They have software (called the "webpack")
which is completely free and covers most of their low end parts. It
comes with a basic simulator as well (VERY important to have, even if
you're NOT a beginner!).

The following is a CPLD dev board which would be perfect for a beginner:
http://www.xilinx.com/xlnx/xebiz/designResources/ip_product_details.jsp?key=DO-CPLD-DK

It's $49USD + shipping and includes everything you need to get going.

If you've willing to spend a little more I would strongly recommend
getting the following:
http://www.xilinx.com/xlnx/xebiz/designResources/ip_product_details.jsp?key=HW-SPAR3-CPLD-DK

which, aside from the CPLD kit above, also includes an FPGA dev kit:
http://www.xilinx.com/xlnx/xebiz/designResources/ip_product_details.jsp?key=DO-SPAR3-DK

While the bundle is $99USD + shipping I think it's well worth the money
if your serious about going into FPGAs. 

You could go with just the FPGA kit if you're willing to try the steeper
learning curve of FPGAs, but for a beginner CPLDs are more friendly.
Plus being able to use CPLDs is nice because sometimes you don't need
the added complexity and gate density an FPGA gives you.

TTYL

-----------------------------
Herbert's PIC Stuff:
http://repatch.dyndns.org:8383/pic_stuff/

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