A newbie question (Xilinx or Altera Env?)

Hello,
I am interested in learning fpga. I want advice on  which software/HW dev 
board should I pick. I have downloaded eval copies of Altera, Xilinx and 
Aldec.
I am playing around with each to decide which I should stick too and now 
planning to buy a H/W borad  I am also interested in embedded RTOS/ soft 
core procesors, DSP and communications area.
Altera has Nios and Xlinx has Picoblaze/Microblaze softcore processors Which 
one is better suited for a newbie and will serve better to my interests as 
given above?
Altera and Xilinx only supports their on  CPLDs and FPGAs. I am planning to 
purchase a H/W dev board. I need advise on which board to buy (Xilinx 
specific or Altera specific) so as to protect my investment.
I have found Spartan 3E board from Xilinx ($ 149) particularly tempting for 
the kind of  projects I want to do and is relatively cheap with all hte 
features to do serious study. But I want a professional advice from you 
guys.
Thanks in advance for your time

Nirav Raval

On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 16:39:21 -0500, "Nirav Raval" <niravraval@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Hello,
>I am interested in learning fpga. I want advice on  which software/HW dev 
>board should I pick. I have downloaded eval copies of Altera, Xilinx and 
>Aldec.
>I am playing around with each to decide which I should stick too and now 
>planning to buy a H/W borad. I am planning to 
>purchase a H/W dev board. I need advise on which board to buy (Xilinx 
>specific or Altera specific) so as to protect my investment.
>I have found Spartan 3E board from Xilinx ($ 149) particularly tempting for 
>the kind of  projects I want to do and is relatively cheap with all hte 
>features to do serious study. But I want a professional advice from you 
>guys.
>Nirav Raval

A very extensive list of boards for you to peruse can be found in the FAQ:

   http://www.fpga-faq.org/FPGA_Boards.shtml


Philip


===================
Philip Freidin
philip.freidin@fpga-faq.org
Host for WWW.FPGA-FAQ.ORG

For starters forget about the processor... Start with looking for hardware
that suits you.. USB, Ethernet with MAC and PHY, DRAM, FLASH etc.  Possibly
even a display.
That will give you a board you can start with, Altera or Xilinx doesn't
matter when you are learning.  Essentially they are the same just with
different features.  The main thing is to make sure you have the biggest and
most affordable device that can be used by the free tools.

The forget about the mac, phy, dram, flash, usb .... everything but the
FPGA.  Learn how to right simple VHDL or Verilog and create programs that
can flash LED's and read switches... once you can understand that, start
looking and reading about the processor.. just try simple things until you
can make something useful... but I would ignore the Ethernet and USB until
university where a professor can help.. protocol stacks are not for the
faint hearted.  neither is building a single chip processor.  But it you
persist and can sort out mappings, you can easily do it yourself and gain a
good working knowledge of imbedded chip design,  but I wouldn't expect that
straight away.

Simon


"Nirav Raval" <niravraval@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2uadncpdCceNtdrfRVn-1A@rogers.com...
> Hello,
> I am interested in learning fpga. I want advice on  which software/HW dev
> board should I pick. I have downloaded eval copies of Altera, Xilinx and
> Aldec.
> I am playing around with each to decide which I should stick too and now
> planning to buy a H/W borad  I am also interested in embedded RTOS/ soft
> core procesors, DSP and communications area.
> Altera has Nios and Xlinx has Picoblaze/Microblaze softcore processors
Which
> one is better suited for a newbie and will serve better to my interests as
> given above?
> Altera and Xilinx only supports their on  CPLDs and FPGAs. I am planning
to
> purchase a H/W dev board. I need advise on which board to buy (Xilinx
> specific or Altera specific) so as to protect my investment.
> I have found Spartan 3E board from Xilinx ($ 149) particularly tempting
for
> the kind of  projects I want to do and is relatively cheap with all hte
> features to do serious study. But I want a professional advice from you
> guys.
> Thanks in advance for your time
>
> Nirav Raval
>
>
>
>