On 10/04/2011 14:36, V G wrote:
> How much cheaper are equivalent current generation chips?
>
> Also, would you guys recommend the papilio 250K board? Or would you
> guys recommend another?
>

I would recommend pretty much anything with a reasonably recent FPGA on,=20
and easy access to the pins. I haven't looked, but the Papillo sounds=20
fine to me.
I started with a 60K device and just made my own simple board, which did=20
little more than provide a clock source and make pins accessible. It was=20
absolutely fine for learning purposes, as there are endless things to=20
try out on the chip itself, and then provide a simple debug result on=20
the pins. If you need to (e.g. if designing a UART) you can connect to=20
other things anyway using a breadboard.
For instance if you are designing an ALU, all your work is on board the=20
chip, and the result can be as simple as a bunch of LEDs (or display on=20
a logic analyser) Also, you be running things on the simulator many=20
times before you route the FGPA anyway, so you will get a good feel for=20
what's going on there.
This is a bit different to working with uCs as you assume the silicon is=20
working to start with. With an FPGA you are designing the "silicon"=20
itself, which is a huge and complex field. Hopefully this makes some=20
sense - roughly my point is don't worry too much about dev board=20
features, there will be plenty to try with the most simple available, so=20
grab something and start from the beginning. This is probably a better=20
approach, as you will not be as tempted to try out all the fancy stuff=20
before you understand the "basics". Just learning how to use the tools=20
will keep you occupied for a while.. :-)



--=20
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