I'd go with either Altera or Xilinx...both offer free tools on the web for smallish developments. However, unless you use Altera that offers a schematic based design entry, your going to have to learn either Verilog (my preference) or VHDL. There are several good tutorials out on the web for both. Now and then I've seen classes offered by both Avnet and Arrow (Avnet for Xilinx...check out the speedway classes and Arrow is Altera). NuHorizons has also offered classes in the past. There are low cost dev kits (also check Ebay) for both products. Altera's programmer is something you can build..or used to be able to..if you have a parallel port on the PC. For Xilinx I dont recall ever seeing one that is available to build, but could be wrong. Again, check on Ebay for programmers. Many of the dev boards include a USB interface for programming, just make sure that it doesn't require an external programmer. And of course, if your in good terms with the local FAE or distributor...they sometimes just give those away in order to gain or win design sockets. Best of luck James Nick Sears wrote: More and more I'm finding questions in my work that seem to be leading me to FPGA-based solutions. I have a lot of experience with PICs, circuit design, software development, etc, but absolutely ZERO with FPGA. What would you recommend as a starter platform and dev kit that is relatively powerful and easy to learn and integrate into a larger design (i.e. no FPGAs that are only available in BGA - fine pitch SMD is of course no problem), and not terribly expensive (It would be nice to spend around $250 or less for a complete solution, programmer and all, but if there's a good reason to spend more I want to hear about it)? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, -n. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist