provide Clarity for Spatran ,Vertex, gensys,xilinx etc

[moonnightingale]

When i goto website of digilent and see FPGA boards.
All the FPGA kits are having Digilent written on them,
Then in specs for most of kits Spatran is written
and main name is Vertex or gensys.
What is all this..why so many names.
Why every board is having xilinx written on it

Can i program Altera Board with Xilinx Software??

 

[Sckoarn]

I have found that those development boards are like advertising. I think the main FPGA vendor creates a design that would enable users to develop applications. They include parts from other suppliers and get a disscount by putting extra silk screen names / ID's for the other companies. I think it helps premote new devices and what not. If your prototype board has components that enable you to get your project done, you may choose them for a final product.

I do not think you can program Altera with Xilinx software. Pritty sure you can not. If you purchase a development kit you should get all you need for that kit.

 

[bigdogguru]

Hi,

Xilinx and Altera only produce the FPGA, Spartan, Virtex, Coolrunner, etc by Xilinx and Cyclone, Stratix, MAX, etc by Altera. They do not produce the development boards themselves. The job to design and produce the development boards is contracted out to other companies, Digilent and Avnet for Xilinx, Terasic and HiTech Global for Altera. The boards are marketed by not only the company that produced them, but the FPGA manufacturers themselves. Plus as Sckoarn put it, it advertising, some of the peripheral chip manufactures put their name on the board as well.

Hope this helps answer your question.

P.S. No you cannot program a board with the competitor's software! However, there may be third party software companies which can program both, but I can't think of any off hand.

 

[moonnightingale]

Thanks a lot Biddogguru