Altera starter kits

I'm looking into buying the fpga and/or cpld starter kits. I was
wondering if the logic chips can be taken out of the development board
after they are programmed. 

Thanks

wanwan wrote:
> I'm looking into buying the fpga and/or cpld starter kits. I was
> wondering if the logic chips can be taken out of the development board
> after they are programmed.

Sure, but they are unlikely to be usable afterwards :-)  Besides, only
CPLDs are non-volatile. It would be rather pointless for an FPGA.

Your question suggest that you don't really understand CPLDs and FPGAs.
Both are really meant to be programmed in-system. The FPGA is usually
programmed on each power on, typically from a serial programming flash
or a microcontroller. If you do need them in a different application,
you're better of laying out a board and populate it with fresh chips.
Be warned though, it's a lot more complicated than with a
microcontroller.

Get a Spartan 3E starter kit or the Cyclone II Starter Development Kit,
read the documentation and play with it.

Cheers,
Tommy

wanwan wrote:

> I'm looking into buying the fpga and/or cpld starter kits. I was
> wondering if the logic chips can be taken out of the development board
> after they are programmed.

If you look at the DigiLab Picomax from El Camino (see
http://www.elcamino.de/Products/prod dpicomaxe.html) you will see that it
uses a PLCC socket. Thus, with the right tool (a small teaspoon or a
horribly expensive PLCC removal thingie) you should be able to remove the
CPLD from the board.

I don't know of any other eval boards where the device can then be taken off
the board.

Best regards,


Ben

Ben Twijnstra wrote:
> wanwan wrote:
> 
> 
>>I'm looking into buying the fpga and/or cpld starter kits. I was
>>wondering if the logic chips can be taken out of the development board
>>after they are programmed.
> 
> 
> If you look at the DigiLab Picomax from El Camino (see
> http://www.elcamino.de/Products/prod dpicomaxe.html) you will see that it
> uses a PLCC socket. Thus, with the right tool (a small teaspoon or a
> horribly expensive PLCC removal thingie) you should be able to remove the
> CPLD from the board.
> 
> I don't know of any other eval boards where the device can then be taken off
> the board.

The Atmel ATF15xx-DK3 has daughter cards, with ZIF sockets
[ so you can leave the teaspoon in your coffee :)  ]

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=3868

The different ZIF's support PLCC44, TQFP44, TQFP100 etc

Kits are on Digikey for $112, and IIRC that gives
1 x TQFP44 Zif, and the Parallel Port - 10W ISP cable + SW.
( these support the new ATF1502BE / ATF1504ASL )

These starter kits do not support vector Testing, for that you
need a device programmer.

The Zif sockets are $$$ and rare, so we are making an adaptor PCB that
morphs a -DK3 ZIF into a Programmer ZIF.

-jg

Apart from the fact, that Xilinx-based starterkits appear to be
cheaper, I recommend to go with a e.g. S3D kit which is here around
134,- and has really more than necessary to start with FPGA. There is
also no need to "take out" the FPGA to place in another system. ou can
drop the entire EVAL-board into a prototype system :-)   (not really
kidding, I am doing this currently)

But If you intend to stay with Altera, you should have a look at the
cycloneII board named "HPE AC II mini" from "Gleichmann Research" in
Austria. It starts from =80299,- (avnet-price) and is ready for large
uc-based designes especially with the bundled LEON 32bit-soft core. It
has SRAM Socket and a large and fast FPGA, so this board is hard to
exceed with start up design. (Spartan is much smaller)

What I really need to do is to program a chip to have a logic circuit,
so that I can use it elsewhere.  I am considering this approach rather
than building with an IC circuit.  Can anyone give me suggestions
please?

wanwan schrieb:

> What I really need to do is to program a chip to have a logic circuit,
> so that I can use it elsewhere.  I am considering this approach rather
> than building with an IC circuit.  Can anyone give me suggestions
> please?

http://www.oho-elektronik.de/index.php?c=1&s=product1

plugin DIP modules with CPLD or FPGA on it

If the logic circuit is not too complex, you can concider any CPLD
ranging from 32 macrocells to 1000 MC (in some cases).

Another approach would be to use Altera's MaxII or Lattice's MachXO.
Unfortunately you will have to deal with BGA packages for the larger
devices and high IO count. If I'm not mistaken both MaxII and MachXO
have a TQFP100 package for the whole range.

The last approach is a non volatile FPGA. Only Lattice's XP and
Actel's ProASIC3 provide a practical solution. The functions you can
implement in these devices can be very big.

All devices mentioned are in system programmable.

Regards,

Luc

On 6 Dec 2006 04:47:59 -0800, "wanwan" <ericwan78@yahoo.com> wrote:

>What I really need to do is to program a chip to have a logic circuit,
>so that I can use it elsewhere.  I am considering this approach rather
>than building with an IC circuit.  Can anyone give me suggestions
>please?

wanwan wrote:
> What I really need to do is to program a chip to have a logic circuit,
> so that I can use it elsewhere.  I am considering this approach rather
> than building with an IC circuit.  Can anyone give me suggestions
> please?

If you don't mind using a Xilinx device, check out XESS website
(http://www.xess.com) their boards can be placed in circuit and last I
knew, worked with Xilinx's web pack distribution. I've seen these
integrated in low volume commercial products and prototypes.

wanwan wrote:

> What I really need to do is to program a chip to have a logic circuit,
> so that I can use it elsewhere.  I am considering this approach rather
> than building with an IC circuit.  Can anyone give me suggestions
> please?

Is it plug-able that's important ?
How complex is that 'logic circuit'
How fast does it need to operate ?
- can you describe what you want to do, and you can get more accurate 
advice.

-jg