On 06/03/2011 08:51, V G wrote:
> Now I'm fully interested in FPGAs. I'm looking into getting a starter kit=
 of
> some sort.
>
> What would you guys recommend getting?

I don't think it matters too much as long as it can be used with the=20
current vendor tools and has reasonable access to the pins. You may get=20
one that is limited in some way (as Peter noted with LVDS etc) but you=20
will have plenty to do just learning the tools, HDL, good design=20
practice and so on - by the time you are moving on to bigger things you=20
will likely be looking to your own design anyway.
     Getting one that goes with a book (like the one I mentioned=20
"Prototyping with Verilog examples", though there is probably newer=20
material/boards out now) might be a good idea and make things a bit=20
easier too.
     As I mentioned before, In the past I have often just skipped the=20
dev board part and bought the programmer, read the manual and made my=20
own board. Reasons are that I am going to have to do it at some point=20
anyway, I'm forced to do more substantial reading/learning before=20
jumping into stuff, rather than just getting a board and running a=20
bundled example (which can give you a false sense of confidence) and=20
also they often come with all manner of things I don't need on there=20
thus pushing the price up to silly amounts.
That said I probably would not advise doing this with FPGAs if you want=20
to get going quickly, as the small footprints, multiple voltages and=20
multilayer boards needed make it a tall order compared to making e.g.=20
your own PIC dev board. Just remember at some point you will (probably)=20
have to design your own board if you want to use them, and with such=20
high speed (compared to e.g PICs) densely packed stuff comes a whole=20
host of things you need be aware of and design accordingly for -=20
transmission line effects, simultaneously switching output problems etc,=20
plus things like DDR, LVDS, PECL and similar. So being as prepared as=20
possible is a good thing.
I seem to have gone on at length here - main point was I think there is=20
plenty to do/learn with just a simple FPGA (with access to the pins so=20
you can interface things as you like) on it's own, and maybe it's not=20
such a bad thing to keep it simple to start with anyway.


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