FPGA development board

Hi all,

I'm new to FPGA and CPLD. Had just started learning VHDL, I'm keen to
implement my design on real Xilinx FPGA. Buying a professional
development board is really a costly affair, so I'm interested to
build my own FPGA board for learning purpose!

Can anybody provide please provide me some help, where should I start
or suggest some pointer?

All I know about FPGA board is; FPGA board is similar to
microcontroller board, and you have to download the bits into it. And
you have download cable for this purpose, whose schematic is available
at Xilinx's site.

And finally which FPGA should I select? It should be SRAM, so I can
reprogram it again and again, and should be cheap though.

Thanks in advance

> I'm new to FPGA and CPLD. Had just started learning VHDL, I'm keen to
> implement my design on real Xilinx FPGA. Buying a professional
> development board is really a costly affair, so I'm interested to
> build my own FPGA board for learning purpose!
>
> Can anybody provide please provide me some help, where should I start
> or suggest some pointer?
>
> All I know about FPGA board is; FPGA board is similar to
> microcontroller board, and you have to download the bits into it. And
> you have download cable for this purpose, whose schematic is available
> at Xilinx's site.
>

You can get started with an FPGA board that is under GPL:
http://www.opencores.org/projects.cgi/web/acxbrd/overview

Martin
----------------------------------------------
JOP - a Java Processor core for FPGAs:
http://www.jopdesign.com/

"Jack// ani" <nospam4u_jack@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:86040da6.0411200551.6609a567@posting.google.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I'm new to FPGA and CPLD. Had just started learning VHDL, I'm keen to
> implement my design on real Xilinx FPGA. Buying a professional
> development board is really a costly affair, so I'm interested to
> build my own FPGA board for learning purpose!

http://xilinx.openchip.org/proto/
easy! 2M Gates FPGA platform for $49, cant go lower than that! :)

> Can anybody provide please provide me some help, where should I start
> or suggest some pointer?

there are some DIY FPGA boards with all manufacturing files (gerber) but
doing a single proto is more costly than buying a board.

> All I know about FPGA board is; FPGA board is similar to
> microcontroller board, and you have to download the bits into it. And
> you have download cable for this purpose, whose schematic is available
> at Xilinx's site.

Yes and No. Microcontrollers usually need to be programmed with object code
for some the microcontroller.
FPGA needs to be programmed to be anything, this can be single wire or and
gate or microcontroller.
once you have some microcontroller in the FPGA you can program the
controller with proper object code.

in many cases 4 wires to LPT port is sufficent to program an FPGA

> And finally which FPGA should I select? It should be SRAM, so I can
> reprogram it again and again, and should be cheap though.

http://www.xilinx.com/store/electronica2004
there is special offer for 2 boards for $99

if you need more than that, the wait for the Xilinx S3-1500 low cost to be
announced, it has more goodies,

if you really want todo it yourself, try ebay shopping to get some FPGA for
very cheap, attach power supply and jtag header, but the time/effort spent
doesnt actually justify that in most cases.

> Thanks in advance

Antti
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3854143050

"Jack// ani" <nospam4u_jack@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:86040da6.0411200551.6609a567@posting.google.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I'm new to FPGA and CPLD. Had just started learning VHDL, I'm keen to
> implement my design on real Xilinx FPGA. Buying a professional
> development board is really a costly affair, so I'm interested to
> build my own FPGA board for learning purpose!
>
> Can anybody provide please provide me some help, where should I start
> or suggest some pointer?
>
> All I know about FPGA board is; FPGA board is similar to
> microcontroller board, and you have to download the bits into it. And
> you have download cable for this purpose, whose schematic is available
> at Xilinx's site.
>
> And finally which FPGA should I select? It should be SRAM, so I can
> reprogram it again and again, and should be cheap though.

Xilinx has a $99 kit that is ideal for your purposes.

Leon
-- 
Leon Heller, G1HSM
http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller
http://www.kasamba.com/viewExpert.asp?conMemID=105725&Catid=1111&banID=2100 

On 20 Nov 2004 05:51:34 -0800, nospam4u_jack@yahoo.com (Jack// ani) wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I'm new to FPGA and CPLD. Had just started learning VHDL, I'm keen to
>implement my design on real Xilinx FPGA. Buying a professional
>development board is really a costly affair, so I'm interested to
>build my own FPGA board for learning purpose!
>
>Can anybody provide please provide me some help, where should I start
>or suggest some pointer?

Here's a pointer:  http://www.fpga-faq.com/FPGA_Boards.shtml

Given that you are just getting started, I think you would be best
off buying your first board, rather than getting distracted on
building a board (which given your cost sensitivity, is going to be
more expensive that buying one of the low cost boards).

Most of the cheap boards use chips that are supported by the free
software from the FPGA vendors.

I would recommend you look at something with a Xilinx Spartan-2 or
Spartan-3 chip.

Philip




===================
Philip Freidin
philip.freidin@fpga-faq.com
Host for WWW.FPGA-FAQ.COM

Philip Freidin <philip@fliptronics.com> wrote in message news:<ru1vp05sqfsojarqd0b66b9e07hjerqrc7@4ax.com>...
> On 20 Nov 2004 05:51:34 -0800, nospam4u_jack@yahoo.com (Jack// ani) wrote:
> 
> >Hi all,
> >
> >I'm new to FPGA and CPLD. Had just started learning VHDL, I'm keen to
> >implement my design on real Xilinx FPGA. Buying a professional
> >development board is really a costly affair, so I'm interested to
> >build my own FPGA board for learning purpose!
> >
> >Can anybody provide please provide me some help, where should I start
> >or suggest some pointer?
> 
> Here's a pointer:  http://www.fpga-faq.com/FPGA_Boards.shtml
> 
> Given that you are just getting started, I think you would be best
> off buying your first board, rather than getting distracted on
> building a board (which given your cost sensitivity, is going to be
> more expensive that buying one of the low cost boards).
> 
> Most of the cheap boards use chips that are supported by the free
> software from the FPGA vendors.
> 
> I would recommend you look at something with a Xilinx Spartan-2 or
> Spartan-3 chip.
> 
> Philip
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ===================
> Philip Freidin
> philip.freidin@fpga-faq.com
> Host for WWW.FPGA-FAQ.COM

Thanks everyone.

"Leon Heller" <leon_heller@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<419f7a75$0$2292$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com>...
Hi Leon,

I saw this page http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller/pld_starter.html,
quite interesting. Now I think getting started with CPLD is not a bad
idea. As you said there, FPGA is probably not ideal for learning PLD,
so your CPLD proto board is pulling my attention!

I have few questions regarding your XC9536 proto board,

1.Is XC9536 still available, I mean to say(in case) they are obsolete
by now?

2.How may time can I reprogram it, since it is flash memory based? Is
there any equivalent SRAM based device, so that I can program it again
and again?

3.I need a Xilinx parallel download cable to program it, right?

4.What is frequency of crystal oscillator? Which sort to crystal
oscillator is this one, having six pins(as shown in the layout)? Till
now I dealt only two pin crystals!

5.Sorry to say, your PCB layout is missing some tracks of PLCC socket.
Can you please upload it again.

Thanks a lot.

nospam4u_jack@yahoo.com (Jack// ani) wrote in message news:<86040da6.0411220039.ceb09f3@posting.google.com>...
> "Leon Heller" <leon_heller@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<419f7a75$0$2292$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com>...

Hey Leon where you, I need your help!!

I have one more query

According to my text book, if your design needs large numbers of
flip-flops you should so for a FPGA instead of CPLD, but you can use
CPLD for lesser flip-flops demanding design. So I want to know about
their relative figures, also can I design 4bit counters, ripple
counter, ring counter, Johnson counter etc, on his CPLD?

Thanks again

"Jack// ani" <nospam4u_jack@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:86040da6.0411200551.6609a567@posting.google.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I'm new to FPGA and CPLD. Had just started learning VHDL, I'm keen to
> implement my design on real Xilinx FPGA. Buying a professional
> development board is really a costly affair, so I'm interested to
> build my own FPGA board for learning purpose!
>
> Can anybody provide please provide me some help, where should I start
> or suggest some pointer?
>
> All I know about FPGA board is; FPGA board is similar to
> microcontroller board, and you have to download the bits into it. And
> you have download cable for this purpose, whose schematic is available
> at Xilinx's site.
>
> And finally which FPGA should I select? It should be SRAM, so I can
> reprogram it again and again, and should be cheap though.
>
> Thanks in advance

Like Leon pointed out

Xilinx spartan3 starter kit for US$99
https://digilent.us/Sales/Product.cfm?Prod=S3BOARD

also coolrunner2 starter kit for US$49
http://www.digilentinc.com/XC2XL.html?Prod=xc2xl

both are made by digilentinc for xilinx.
Digilent also make addon boards like ethernet and usb(to connect to pc)
https://digilent.us/Sales/System.cfm  system boards
https://digilent.us/Sales/Peripheral.cfm  peripheral boards

Xess make some boards
www.xess.com

As do lots of others

www.fpga4fun.com Jean sells some boards

www.burched.com  Tony Burch

Altium Livedesign boards US$99 www.altium.com/livedesign
can be programs from either inside protel or from the fpga vendor tools

lots of others out there

Alex 

"Alex Gibson" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message news:<30j6d7F313dh0U4@uni-berlin.de>...
> "Jack// ani" <nospam4u_jack@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
> news:86040da6.0411200551.6609a567@posting.google.com...

I was expecting Leon to solve my query! It appears that he is out or
no more interested in me.

BTW, I got answer to all the questions except one: What is the
frequency to crystal oscillator used here
http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller/pld_starter.html , it is
mentioned no where! I'm still in a hope that some one will help me! I
think is should be 50Mhz&#4294967295;but not sure.

Thanks