Epis
Newbie level 4
cheapest fpga
I am beginner and want to lern Fpgas and all this time (2months) I searched the best, cheapest Fpga for my lerning experiments and Found ofcours ALTERAS Cyclone II series (I am intrested in EP2C8Q208C8) and Xilinx spartan 3 and Lattice and New ACTEL Fusion series M7AFS600. SO which is the best one to start with?
Other problem is availability! Altera and Xilinx and lattice are available in onlinestors and I can buy them directly without porblems, but Fusion (the best FPGA for me) is a Problem becouse onlineshops don't sell it and all distibutors don't sell in small Quantitys (3-5) so I can't buy Fusion with ARM7 IP-core. maby somebady knows wher to buy this fusion chip (I tried to contact all european distributors but nothing)!
Second way is to buy Fusion starter kit but it is expensive for me it will totaly cost 500$.
It seams that cheapest way to get FPGA and programm it is buying Alteras cyclone II ep2c8 Fpga for 20$ +flash 16$ and all small components for PCB, but PCB will be complex and I will have to comunicate with all external compnents like ADC compared to fusion then there all is in one chip and comunication and setup is done in one software Libero IDE and it will simplify greatly all code writing process.
If I will not finde Fusion Fpga (highest opriority) seller then I will have to buy Cyclone II FPGA and it is last choise (lowest priority).
I don't know what to do keep serching for Fusion chip or buy cyclone II ??
I am beginner and want to lern Fpgas and all this time (2months) I searched the best, cheapest Fpga for my lerning experiments and Found ofcours ALTERAS Cyclone II series (I am intrested in EP2C8Q208C8) and Xilinx spartan 3 and Lattice and New ACTEL Fusion series M7AFS600. SO which is the best one to start with?
Other problem is availability! Altera and Xilinx and lattice are available in onlinestors and I can buy them directly without porblems, but Fusion (the best FPGA for me) is a Problem becouse onlineshops don't sell it and all distibutors don't sell in small Quantitys (3-5) so I can't buy Fusion with ARM7 IP-core. maby somebady knows wher to buy this fusion chip (I tried to contact all european distributors but nothing)!
Second way is to buy Fusion starter kit but it is expensive for me it will totaly cost 500$.
It seams that cheapest way to get FPGA and programm it is buying Alteras cyclone II ep2c8 Fpga for 20$ +flash 16$ and all small components for PCB, but PCB will be complex and I will have to comunicate with all external compnents like ADC compared to fusion then there all is in one chip and comunication and setup is done in one software Libero IDE and it will simplify greatly all code writing process.
If I will not finde Fusion Fpga (highest opriority) seller then I will have to buy Cyclone II FPGA and it is last choise (lowest priority).
I don't know what to do keep serching for Fusion chip or buy cyclone II ??