Different capabilities

Hello.
Im a new masters degree student and i want to have a kit at home.
I need help on selecting the right development kit for me.
What are the difference in capabilities for the Spartan 3, Spartan 2,
Spartan 2E. These three types seems like the boards that have a reasonable
price for me.

-
Thomas

"Thomas Nilsen" <nospam@nospam.nospam> wrote in message
news:cffdsu$ios$1@services.kq.no...
> Hello.
> Im a new masters degree student and i want to have a kit at home.
> I need help on selecting the right development kit for me.
> What are the difference in capabilities for the Spartan 3, Spartan 2,
> Spartan 2E. These three types seems like the boards that have a reasonable
> price for me.


All three device families are quite capable and boards containing any of the
three will help in learning about FPGAs.

Spartan-3, however, is architecturally similar to the other modern Xilinx
FPGA families like Virtex-II/Pro, etc.  Also, the latest free Xilinx WebPack
software typically supports the two most recent Spartan FPGA families,
Spartan-3 being the most recent of all three.  The older families are still
supported, but only in "Classic" software that may not include the latest
enhancements.

Just in case you haven't already seen it, the Spartan-3 Starter Kit board
also includes 1Mbyte of RAM on the board, plus RS-232, VGA, and PS/2 ports.
http://www.xilinx.com/s3boards
---------------------------------
Steven K. Knapp
Applications Manager, Xilinx Inc.
General Products Division
Spartan-3/II/IIE FPGAs
http://www.xilinx.com/spartan3
---------------------------------
Spartan-3:  Make it Your ASIC

I was looking at the Spartan 3 kit and it seems that this suits my needs in
more than one way with some onboard io stuff and a nice price.
Thanks for you reply.

-
Thomas

"Steven K. Knapp" <steve.knappNO#SPAM@xilinx.com> wrote in message
news:cfg5cm$e6n1@cliff.xsj.xilinx.com...
>
>
> "Thomas Nilsen" <nospam@nospam.nospam> wrote in message
> news:cffdsu$ios$1@services.kq.no...
> > Hello.
> > Im a new masters degree student and i want to have a kit at home.
> > I need help on selecting the right development kit for me.
> > What are the difference in capabilities for the Spartan 3, Spartan 2,
> > Spartan 2E. These three types seems like the boards that have a
reasonable
> > price for me.
>
>
> All three device families are quite capable and boards containing any of
the
> three will help in learning about FPGAs.
>
> Spartan-3, however, is architecturally similar to the other modern Xilinx
> FPGA families like Virtex-II/Pro, etc.  Also, the latest free Xilinx
WebPack
> software typically supports the two most recent Spartan FPGA families,
> Spartan-3 being the most recent of all three.  The older families are
still
> supported, but only in "Classic" software that may not include the latest
> enhancements.
>
> Just in case you haven't already seen it, the Spartan-3 Starter Kit board
> also includes 1Mbyte of RAM on the board, plus RS-232, VGA, and PS/2
ports.
> http://www.xilinx.com/s3boards
> ---------------------------------
> Steven K. Knapp
> Applications Manager, Xilinx Inc.
> General Products Division
> Spartan-3/II/IIE FPGAs
> http://www.xilinx.com/spartan3
> ---------------------------------
> Spartan-3:  Make it Your ASIC
>
>