I started to wonder when I started Andouino and looked at samples and it wa= s a procedural language like c. What was that? Well, I can of course read= it for myself. :-) I got interested in this sort of thing after doing the nand 2 tetris course= .. I had no idea that this sort of technology existed where I can build a c= omputer from simple logic gates and put it on a chip. It's going to take m= e a little time to get used to this new world and all the terms and stuff, = like when I was new to PIC. * Lindy -----Original Message----- From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of= Mike Harrison Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 8:15 PM To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. Subject: Re: [OT] Hobbyist FPGA development boards? On Thu, 3 Oct 2013 16:39:39 +0000, you wrote: >That looks nice. But to be super sure I'm in the right place, What I want= to do is write in some HDL, connect Nots, Nands, Ors, Muxen, all together = an design my own CPU, as well as memory? I'm in the right place with FPGA'= s yes?=20 Yes. > And if so, is this something the Arduino IDE does?=20 no > I downloaded Xlinx Vivado, because that's what I thought it does, but it = is such a huge monster of a program that I couldn't install it on my laptop= .. All FPGA software is huge. Much of which is stuff you can't or don't need t= o use, but makers can;t be bothered to split it up sensibly. =20 Not sure how the big 3 compare in this respect. Lattice Diamond install is = about 1.75Gb, which is fairly small in comparison to some - they have a lot= fewer device varieties, which helps. =20 Lattice is based on the same tools as Xilinx ISE, but far fewer devices and= add-ons to bloat it.=20 >If I use the Xlinx Vivado to do the design, will that work with the other = brands like Lattice? No. it's vendor specific -- http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/chang= e your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclis= t --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .