IF you work for someone that is buying from a FPGA vendor (I'd stick with A=
ltera or Xilinx), they both have dev boards that they give away but....have=
 to ask nice of course.  I have a Spartan board somewhere that I got a few =
years ago and never used it.  It doesn't have breadboard area but I think i=
t has all the headers and such.

Tools are free, you can download from the web for both vendors.  That might=
 be a good place to start actually, and just write some code (Verilog or VH=
DL) and simulate.  The free packages will do the small parts, but not the V=
irtex and Stratix ones.

AND....I would highly suggest you get a copy of the "big blue book"  HDL Ch=
ip Design byt Douglas J Smith.  Wonderful book and shows examples of both V=
erilog and VHDL instantiations.



-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of=
 Lindy Mayfield
Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 4:32 AM
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: [OT] Hobbyist FPGA development boards?

Could someone recommend a development board, similar to the ones for PIC, s=
uitable for a hobbyist (and similarly priced)?  The FPGA area is new to me,=
 so my googling isn't very good yet.  All the things I can find are terribl=
y expensive (compared to the nice PIC boards).

Thanks!
Lindy

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