I have found that FPGA's and cables can be easily built for fun and hobby, but that will break my wallet... but I don't want to buy a demo board at US$45 and pay 50US$ for UPS...And I don't want to spend more US$50 at all... JTAG cable can be built with a parallel cable...but where can I find the FPGA devices and socket for them? Kelvin
Where to get FPGA devices for testing?
Started by ●January 29, 2004
Reply by ●January 29, 20042004-01-29
Reply by ●January 29, 20042004-01-29
hum, without changing hobby, you can find some small to medium size FPGAs without spending too much. Look for the Xilinx Spartan-2 and the Altera ACEX - small but still usable devices are in the $10 to $20 range. Sockets are expensive though ($200-$1000), so that's not a good solution to save money. For boards, look at http://www.fpga-faq.com/FPGA_Boards.shtml You can find complete boards for less than $50 (most of them CPLD based though) The cheapest FPGA board seems to be http://www.fpga4fun.com/board_pluto.html (10K gates) and doesn't require a parallel cable. Anybody has other recommendations? Jean (fpga4fun)
Reply by ●January 29, 20042004-01-29
Try ebay. Here is one with a starting bid of $10 and no bids yet! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2592626600&category=50913 And no it is not my board! ;-) "Kelvin @ SG" <kelvin8157@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:bvc3td$7h7$1@reader01.singnet.com.sg...> I have found that FPGA's and cables can be easily built for fun and hobby, > but that will break my wallet... > but I don't want to buy a demo board at US$45 and pay 50US$ for UPS...AndI> don't want to spend > more US$50 at all... > > JTAG cable can be built with a parallel cable...but where can I find the > FPGA devices and socket for them? > > Kelvin > > >
Reply by ●January 29, 20042004-01-29
Jean, neat website. In your post you should probably have said that the pluto board is your board. I added a link from my links page to your site. The Burch board is also one of the lower cost ones, but is still beyond the $50 budget. There is a fairly comprehensive list of boards at www.optimagic.com. Jean, you may want to send them a note with details and a link to your board. The Xilinx spartan2 and altera acex parts can be had for not much more than a song ($10-20 USD), and these have enough gates to do some pretty cool things. For example, I used an $18 spartanII chip to demo a shortwave radio implemented entirely in an FPGA except for the A to D converter and antenna (there is a block diagram on the front page of my website). Unfortunately, it does cost a bit of money to make a board that is going to be robust enough to work under hobbyist conditions and provide all the hooks to make it useful. The insight spartan2 board I used ran a tad over $100 USD, which is more or less the low end. The Burch board, and Jean's Pluto boards are about all that you'll find cheaper. Jean Nicolle wrote:> hum, without changing hobby, you can find some small to medium size FPGAs > without spending too much. > Look for the Xilinx Spartan-2 and the Altera ACEX - small but still usable > devices are in the $10 to $20 range. > > Sockets are expensive though ($200-$1000), so that's not a good solution to > save money. > For boards, look at http://www.fpga-faq.com/FPGA_Boards.shtml > You can find complete boards for less than $50 (most of them CPLD based > though) > The cheapest FPGA board seems to be http://www.fpga4fun.com/board_pluto.html > (10K gates) and doesn't require a parallel cable. > Anybody has other recommendations? > > Jean (fpga4fun)-- --Ray Andraka, P.E. President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc. 401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950 email ray@andraka.com http://www.andraka.com "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, 1759
Reply by ●January 30, 20042004-01-30
"Kelvin @ SG" <kelvin8157@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<bvc3td$7h7$1@reader01.singnet.com.sg>...> I have found that FPGA's and cables can be easily built for fun and hobby, > but that will break my wallet... > but I don't want to buy a demo board at US$45 and pay 50US$ for UPS...And I > don't want to spend > more US$50 at all... > > JTAG cable can be built with a parallel cable...but where can I find the > FPGA devices and socket for them? > > Kelvinbe smart. be smarter. at www.ebay.com you can find FPGA BGA pulls at price from $9 for 300,000 gates and $49 for 1M Gates FPGA even if it looks undoable at the first look BGA chips with ball distance of 1mm+ and not full grid are easily used in wire wrap proto boards. just put it balls up onto some PCB board, connect GND and VCCxx and JTAG and ready is your FPGA proto board in budget. My proto worked at first attempt, power on and impact reported device found in JTAG chain. Antti xilinx.openchip.org P.S. if somebody doesnt believe I can post some photos of the working proto board PPS there is a catch - those cheap FPGA pulls, they are mostly Virtex FPGA so can not be used with free WebPack :( but I also obtained some Altera FGPAs they should be useable in above mentioned manner and with free Quartus, I even have some 'oveleft' chips if you want them
Reply by ●January 30, 20042004-01-30
antti@case2000.com (Antti Lukats) writes: <snip>> even if it looks undoable at the first look BGA chips > with ball distance of 1mm+ and not full grid are easily > used in wire wrap proto boards. > > just put it balls up onto some PCB board, connect GND and VCCxx > and JTAG and ready is your FPGA proto board in budget. > > My proto worked at first attempt, power on and impact reported > device found in JTAG chain. > > Antti > xilinx.openchip.org > P.S. if somebody doesnt believe I can post some photos of the > working proto board >I believe you, but I'd still like to see the pictures! Cheers, Martin -- martin.j.thompson@trw.com TRW Conekt, Solihull, UK http://www.trw.com/conekt
Reply by ●January 30, 20042004-01-30
Antti Lukats <antti@case2000.com> wrote: : "Kelvin @ SG" <kelvin8157@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<bvc3td$7h7$1@reader01.singnet.com.sg>... : > I have found that FPGA's and cables can be easily built for fun and hobby, : > but that will break my wallet... : > but I don't want to buy a demo board at US$45 and pay 50US$ for UPS...And I : > don't want to spend : > more US$50 at all... : > : > JTAG cable can be built with a parallel cable...but where can I find the : > FPGA devices and socket for them? : > : > Kelvin : be smart. be smarter. : at www.ebay.com you can find FPGA BGA pulls at price from ^^^^^ What do you mean here? : $9 for 300,000 gates and $49 for 1M Gates FPGA : even if it looks undoable at the first look BGA chips : with ball distance of 1mm+ and not full grid are easily : used in wire wrap proto boards. Which FBGA FPGA is not full grid? Bye -- Uwe Bonnes bon@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de Institut fuer Kernphysik Schlossgartenstrasse 9 64289 Darmstadt --------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------
Reply by ●January 30, 20042004-01-30
that is not true...bird park asks for a 7$ ticket...and 2$ on petrol...:P "fabbl" <yttt@nukes.com> wrote in message news:2PgSb.1999$ue6.1793@newssvr31.news.prodigy.com...> >And I > > don't want to spend > > more US$50 at all... > > Find another hobby...Bird watching is cheap. > >
Reply by ●January 30, 20042004-01-30
Jean: You mentioned sockets are worth $200-$1000...what kind of sockets are those? I think if it is watch-repairing sort of skilled work, maybe it is more interesting than FPGA already... Do you mind give me a example of these expensive sockets? Kelvin "Jean Nicolle" <j.nicolle@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message news:TehSb.7580$jx5.6710@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...> hum, without changing hobby, you can find some small to medium size FPGAs > without spending too much. > Look for the Xilinx Spartan-2 and the Altera ACEX - small but still usable > devices are in the $10 to $20 range. > > Sockets are expensive though ($200-$1000), so that's not a good solutionto> save money. > For boards, look at http://www.fpga-faq.com/FPGA_Boards.shtml > You can find complete boards for less than $50 (most of them CPLD based > though) > The cheapest FPGA board seems to behttp://www.fpga4fun.com/board_pluto.html> (10K gates) and doesn't require a parallel cable. > Anybody has other recommendations? > > Jean (fpga4fun) > >
