Need Advice on starting the FPGA

[ee_wmkab]

Dear all,

I am studying on FPGA now and I want buy some Altera FPGA or CPLD for prototype purpose. However, there is a lot of different series of product from Altera. Which one is suitable for new comer? I found FLEX or MAX 7000 series is OK in the price and performance. Any suggestion on this issue? Please advise.

BR
Keith

 

[DrDolittle]

I think FPGA advantage is a good one to use.

 

[jdhar]

Look around for some development boards on Ebay and pick up what you find - that's how I started.

 

[WA]

If you are a student, you can go to @ltera's education development section. Just look for the UP-2 development board.

The UP-2 board contains a MAX-7000 and FLEX10K70.
The price is around $150 (US) for students.

Just check around for their board. If you use their search and type UP-2, you should find it.

The kit comes with a book to get you started and CD with ByteblasterII.
Just load CD, install Byteblaster, and get Licence from @ltera. You just have to answer question about you course, teacher etc...

But you get nice board. I have one for my class and I'm not disapointed.

Hope this helps
wa

 

[dumeHCM]

How big would be your design? How many experience do you have will decide what chip you would use. Chose the cheapest chip if you are beginner

 

[cawan]

If you need to learn in a short time, I suggest altera's fpga. Quartus II V4.1 and Modelsim V6.0 should be the best combination for synthesis and simulation within the development process. Cyclone or Stratix would be the best platform to test your fpga design. Xilinx's fpga may need more time to learn in depth but provides more flexibility. ISE 6.2 and Modelsim V6.0 would be nice for you as starting point. Spartan-3 is recommended as development platform.

 

[ee_wmkab]

Dear All,

Thanks for your kindly advice. I think I will go for FLEX10K series from Altera.

BR
Keith