FPGA development board selection for microprocessor related projects. (Beginner)

[sr2002]

I recently posted in the MCU section about some projects with microcontrollers and FPGAs that I am planning to do, in order to learn.

I have had experience with Verilog simulations and coding on Xilinx and Modelsim.
I wanted to learn to actually program a FPGA using a Development board.

I was comparing between, BeMicro SDK, the DE0 Nano, the Mojo and the Basys2.

I am planing to program basic logic and functional blocks of a RISC processor on the FPGA to just get a hang of it.
Example, Function unit, Memory, RAM, Multiplexers etc.
I want to connect the FPGA with a ARM M4 launchpad and do experiments with different codes and peripherals.

I need help with the board selection. As I am a beginner, I was looking for something robust and which would give me some experience that I could show off on my resume. I used the Basys2 board in my College and wanted to try something else.
Could you guys please explain the major differences in the boards I mentioned. I understand that each one of them has a different family or FPGA and the Spartan 3 is the oldest among them. But comparing all the features a whole, which one would be a better buy?

Also, if there are other FPGA devlopment boards out there, I'm open for suggestions. My budget is 100$USD or less.

 

[aruipksni]

I recently posted in the MCU section about some projects with microcontrollers and FPGAs that I am planning to do, in order to learn.

I have had experience with Verilog simulations and coding on Xilinx and Modelsim.
I wanted to learn to actually program a FPGA using a Development board.

I was comparing between, BeMicro SDK, the DE0 Nano, the Mojo and the Basys2.

I am planing to program basic logic and functional blocks of a RISC processor on the FPGA to just get a hang of it.
Example, Function unit, Memory, RAM, Multiplexers etc.
I want to connect the FPGA with a ARM M4 launchpad and do experiments with different codes and peripherals.

I need help with the board selection. As I am a beginner, I was looking for something robust and which would give me some experience that I could show off on my resume. I used the Basys2 board in my College and wanted to try something else.
Could you guys please explain the major differences in the boards I mentioned. I understand that each one of them has a different family or FPGA and the Spartan 3 is the oldest among them. But comparing all the features a whole, which one would be a better buy?

Also, if there are other FPGA devlopment boards out there, I'm open for suggestions. My budget is 100$USD or less.

i don't understand how buying an evaluation board can give you :
"an experience you can show on your resume",
while you can't figure out the difference between 2 different FPGA devices.
you better do some reading first !
(and don't just throw your money...)

 

[rberek]

It is hard for us to recommend a board for you because you are a bit vague on your requirements other than cost. Every FPGA can implement "function units", RAM and multiplexers. You say you want to interface the FPGA to a microprocessor, but a least one of the boards you picked, the BeMicro SDK, has a soft microprocessor in it already. In the other thread, you mention that you want to use an FPGA for calculations and then interface it to a microcontroller to drive an LCD, but the FPGA could easily do all those jobs by itself. You say you want to experiment with peripherals but you don't mention which ones.

So what you need to do is get specific about what you want to do with it. Decide what interfaces and peripherals you want to learn to use. Pick the board that has the majority of these interfaces. Decide what sort of designs you want to burn into the FPGA. If you want to do DSP or any kind of mathematical processing, pick a device with many multipliers and DSP48s. If you want to do image processing, for example, make sure it had a lot of memory. You seem to like processors. Something that is larger overall would be useful.

Not many people on this site would know the features of each of those boards. They would have to go read the datasheets. That is a job best left to you. You would learn something in the process and practically speaking, no one else is likely to be eager to do this for you. Once you have specific questions we would be happy to help.

As a personal observation, since you mention this is to put on your resume, the projects you implement should be significant. Saying you implemented memories or interfaced to a microcontroller won't cut it. Saying you designed a RISC processor from scratch, or are an expert in soft processors, or writing your own USB or TCP/IP stack would make an employer curious about you.

r.b.

 

[sr2002]

i don't understand how buying an evaluation board can give you :
"an experience you can show on your resume",
while you can't figure out the difference between 2 different FPGA devices.
you better do some reading first !
(and don't just throw your money...)

First of all, a forum is for people to ask questions, and I feel no question is a stupid question. You assumed I can't differentiate between FPGAs based on the language of my post, but the fact is, I can. I have read through all the datasheets. I know how many I/O, peripheral devices, eprom, etc. each board has. But its always better to ask maybe a few experienced people before throwing in 70-80$, as Altera and Xilinx have different IDE's. I have worked on Xilinx, but don't know anything about altera.
Secondly, I am working in parallel on a GPU based research project, and want to test SIMD architectures, which I am currently doing by simulating the Coolrunner II CPLD. I just didn't feel it was necessary for me to give out details about my research plans, so I just kept my question to the point.

- - - Updated - - -

It is hard for us to recommend a board for you because you are a bit vague on your requirements other than cost. Every FPGA can implement "function units", RAM and multiplexers. You say you want to interface the FPGA to a microprocessor, but a least one of the boards you picked, the BeMicro SDK, has a soft microprocessor in it already. In the other thread, you mention that you want to use an FPGA for calculations and then interface it to a microcontroller to drive an LCD, but the FPGA could easily do all those jobs by itself. You say you want to experiment with peripherals but you don't mention which ones.

So what you need to do is get specific about what you want to do with it. Decide what interfaces and peripherals you want to learn to use. Pick the board that has the majority of these interfaces. Decide what sort of designs you want to burn into the FPGA. If you want to do DSP or any kind of mathematical processing, pick a device with many multipliers and DSP48s. If you want to do image processing, for example, make sure it had a lot of memory. You seem to like processors. Something that is larger overall would be useful.

Not many people on this site would know the features of each of those boards. They would have to go read the datasheets. That is a job best left to you. You would learn something in the process and practically speaking, no one else is likely to be eager to do this for you. Once you have specific questions we would be happy to help.

As a personal observation, since you mention this is to put on your resume, the projects you implement should be significant. Saying you implemented memories or interfaced to a microcontroller won't cut it. Saying you designed a RISC processor from scratch, or are an expert in soft processors, or writing your own USB or TCP/IP stack would make an employer curious about you.

r.b.

Thanks for you reply, it was pretty helpful. I dont wish for people to go through datasheets for me, I just posted thinking I would run into other newbies who might have used one of those boards and could just tell me pros and cons of it.
And yes, the BEmicro has a NIOS II microprocessor, the MOJO has a Atmega microcontroller. I am trying to use an external microcontroller for now to interface with the FPGA just to get a hang of it, but later if a get a better board with possibly a ARM processor, I would definitetly try to exploit its onboard capabilities with the FPGA.
Also, I am taking one step at a time, I eventually want to design a RISC and also possibly a GPU, but I dont want to make large claims before even getting my hands on a FPGA.
I agree my post must have sounded like a typical newbie post, but I feel thats what forums are for, to ask questions. I'm sure some book somewhere has an answer for every question ever asked on this forum.

 

[rberek]

No problem. For what it is worth, the BeMicro SDK looked interesting for me. Definitely one of the current trends in FPGAs that was always popular, but now even more so, is the processor embedded in the FPGA. The combination of the flexible hardware and embedded processor is hard to beat . I see increased interest in it in my specialization, which is cellular radio.

As for The Xilinx/Altera debate, it is mostly a matter of personal taste and experience.

I am sure any board would serve you well, in the long run. Pick something which gives you room to grow.

r.b.

 

[sr2002]

Yes, you are right about the BeMicro, its does look interesting. I'm just afraid about its limited I/Os, and dont know if they offer some kind of an expansion chip for it. The cheapest option I see so far, is the Mojo board, which I think is the cheapest Spartan 6 based board.
I heard from a lot of people that the industry is move more towards the ARM architectures and I checked some boards, especially the SocKit, which is line of boards by Arrow that has the ARM + FPGA combination on one board. But those things are pretty expensive for my budget, plus I dont have any experience.
Currently I just ordered an ARM Cortex M4 launchpad, so I can get started with reading some material about arm architectures and program a MCU for starters and then maybe move to an advanced level.