minimum software for virtex II pro

what is the minimum software required to take advantage of a virtex II 
pro (in terms of cost)?

just a poor college student trying to learn fpga's.  Virtex II pro is 
obviously a bit excessive, but my main reason for learning fpga's is to 
begin to do high bandwidth data shuffling.  the rocketio seems well 
suited to that, and i'm hoping with EDK i might actually be able to 
implement gigabit ethernet within my lifetime.


i found a dev kit with EDK for $500.  EDK has ISE demo, but i'm not sure 
how much that will cover me for, ie: if its usable & relatively fully 
featured.   it says the free web pack is not good for any but the 
simplest of virtex II pro's, presuambly in powerpc core support (which 
baseline vII pro lacks)

this is just for learning, i dont need a license to produce or 
distribute anything, although it would be nice (not required) if i could 
eventually like to release some of my work for free online.

kit is memec design one featuring xc2vp4:
http://www.insight-electronics.com/cgi-bin/bvutf8memec/scripts/local/manuDetailArticle.jsp?catPath=/INSIGHT/AMERICAS/UNITED_STATES/MANUFACTURERS/MD_XILINX/EVALUATION_KITS/Virtex%20Series%20Kits&Manu=10089&isDetailPage=true&EDOID=209000&Div=INSIGHT&Reg=AMERICAS&Country=UNITED_STATES&Lang=EN&PnACountry=UNITED_STATES


thanks
matt fowle

Matt,

The least expensive way to get Xilinx ISE tools is to get the ISE Eval:
http://www.xilinx.com/xlnx/xebiz/productview_ise.jsp?category=-21393

It's free, provides a 60 day evaluation, and supports all the VirtexII 
Pro devices.

If you want to use the Power PC, you should get the EDK for $495.

Steve

myren wrote:

> what is the minimum software required to take advantage of a virtex II 
> pro (in terms of cost)?
>
> just a poor college student trying to learn fpga's.  Virtex II pro is 
> obviously a bit excessive, but my main reason for learning fpga's is 
> to begin to do high bandwidth data shuffling.  the rocketio seems well 
> suited to that, and i'm hoping with EDK i might actually be able to 
> implement gigabit ethernet within my lifetime.
>
>
> i found a dev kit with EDK for $500.  EDK has ISE demo, but i'm not 
> sure how much that will cover me for, ie: if its usable & relatively 
> fully featured.   it says the free web pack is not good for any but 
> the simplest of virtex II pro's, presuambly in powerpc core support 
> (which baseline vII pro lacks)
>
> this is just for learning, i dont need a license to produce or 
> distribute anything, although it would be nice (not required) if i 
> could eventually like to release some of my work for free online.
>
> kit is memec design one featuring xc2vp4:
> http://www.insight-electronics.com/cgi-bin/bvutf8memec/scripts/local/manuDetailArticle.jsp?catPath=/INSIGHT/AMERICAS/UNITED_STATES/MANUFACTURERS/MD_XILINX/EVALUATION_KITS/Virtex%20Series%20Kits&Manu=10089&isDetailPage=true&EDOID=209000&Div=INSIGHT&Reg=AMERICAS&Country=UNITED_STATES&Lang=EN&PnACountry=UNITED_STATES 
>
>
>
> thanks
> matt fowle