Hello all,

I'm just starting into FPGA's, and have access to a Spartan-3 Starter
board.  Even though it dates back to 2004 and is no longer supported
by Xilinx, I expect I should be able to at least learn some
fundamentals of VHDL, or Verilog HDL, and a bit more, like just to get
a simple 4-digit hex up/down counter, controlled by switches.  My lap
top doesn't have a parallel port to comunicate with it.  I've also
downloaded Xilinx's WebPack v 13.2, and installed it, but because of
obsolence, I don't see this kit listed in the platform menu in the
project setup. What could suggest that I read to quickly get going
with this toy, and get a good idea of the big picture?  Digital logic
circuits, C programming, DSPs, etc. are not new to me, but FPGAs are.

Thanks very much,

Aleks

On 09/22/2011 06:09 AM, alekceywk wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I'm just starting into FPGA's, and have access to a Spartan-3 Starter
> board.  Even though it dates back to 2004 and is no longer supported
> by Xilinx, I expect I should be able to at least learn some
> fundamentals of VHDL, or Verilog HDL, and a bit more, like just to get
> a simple 4-digit hex up/down counter, controlled by switches.  My lap
> top doesn't have a parallel port to comunicate with it.  I've also
> downloaded Xilinx's WebPack v 13.2, and installed it, but because of
> obsolence, I don't see this kit listed in the platform menu in the
> project setup. What could suggest that I read to quickly get going
> with this toy, and get a good idea of the big picture?  Digital logic
> circuits, C programming, DSPs, etc. are not new to me, but FPGAs are.
>
> Thanks very much,
>
> Aleks

Hi Aleks,
I started with pretty much the same kit a few years back.

Take a look at digilentinc.com, they have a couple of very inexpensive 
options for USB programmers. One is compatible with the Xilinx official 
USB programmer, and the other is proprietary to Digilent Inc, which I 
was originally avoiding because it lacked Linux support, but they have 
recently included Linux support, so there is no need for a parallel port 
regardless of which OS you are on! Before the cheap USB ones were 
available I had to use an expresscard parallel port for my old laptop, 
sadly.

As for compatibility with ISE 13, I don't believe you are going to have 
a problem getting the Spartan 3 to work, it is not yet phased out. On 
the other hand, I designed a board with a Virtex 2 on it about two years 
ago only to find that the family got dropped from ISE from 11 on, and I 
had to go back to ISE 10 to program it.
Basically ISE/webpack does not include "support" for specific dev 
boards, but rather for the actual chip that is on that board. Depending 
where you got the board from, it will be either XC3S200 or XC3S1000 in a 
256 pin package. So when you create your project, you can select that 
from the Spartan 3 family.
Then, you will need to add your pin assignments to a .ucf (user 
constraints file) which will be included in your project. You can find 
out what the correct pin assignments are for the on board clock, each 
LED, switch, etc. in the user manual for the starter kit.

Also, please be sure to learn how to write testbenches and simulate your 
designs before downloading them to an FPGA. It will save you a lot of 
headaches to see that your design is working right first!

I hope that helps!

Steve Battazzo

On 21 Sep., 23:09, alekceywk
<alekce...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I'm just starting into FPGA's, and have access to a Spartan-3 Starter
> board. =A0Even though it dates back to 2004 and is no longer supported
> by Xilinx, I expect I should be able to at least learn some
> fundamentals of VHDL, or Verilog HDL, and a bit more, like just to get
> a simple 4-digit hex up/down counter, controlled by switches. =A0My lap
> top doesn't have a parallel port to comunicate with it. =A0I've also
> downloaded Xilinx's WebPack v 13.2, and installed it, but because of
> obsolence, I don't see this kit listed in the platform menu in the
> project setup. What could suggest that I read to quickly get going
> with this toy, and get a good idea of the big picture? =A0Digital logic
> circuits, C programming, DSPs, etc. are not new to me, but FPGAs are.
>
> Thanks very much,
>
> Aleks

Hi Aleks,
The platform selection menu is new in ISE 13.x.
But like before you can select the desiret target device manually.
Just look in the S3-Starter board documentation for details about FPGA
type, case and speed grade.

Have a nice synthesis
  Eilert