Plecto
Full Member level 5
Hi. Just started a new course at uni where FPGAs are pretty central. I'm really enthusiastic about electronics and I mess around with my solder iron almost daily and I love to bring what I learn at uni home with me (I have many times learned something at a lecture and then done it in practice at home the same day). I don't find it as motivating to do this with an FPGA as I have never come close to actually needing one in a project, a mcu has always been more than enough. I also see that the pin count of FPGAs are pretty high and there is no internal memory to them, I just feel like an FPGA is not the first thing a hobbies tries to master. The reason I'm making this thread is because I like electronics so much and I want to understand VHDL and FPGAs to a little deeper level than what this uni course have to offer. I never find it satisfying to just know what is needed for that particular lab assignment etc, I want to know a little bit of what's actually going on.
At uni we use the Altera DE2 which is a little bit too expensive for me to buy. I was wondering there is an FPGA answer to the arduino or something along those lines? And if not, is it possible to simulate an FPGA? Also, what type of projects from a hobbyist' perspective would be suited for an FPGA? It's not that motivating to include an FPGA in a design when I know that a MCU will do an equally if not better job, I would like to use an FPGA for something that an FPGA is suited for.
At uni we use the Altera DE2 which is a little bit too expensive for me to buy. I was wondering there is an FPGA answer to the arduino or something along those lines? And if not, is it possible to simulate an FPGA? Also, what type of projects from a hobbyist' perspective would be suited for an FPGA? It's not that motivating to include an FPGA in a design when I know that a MCU will do an equally if not better job, I would like to use an FPGA for something that an FPGA is suited for.