Real Beginner in Digital System Design

[semiconductor]

digital system design register

Dear all,

I'm much interested in FPGA World. I used to ask for information about FPGA in this forum but I left them because of small budget . Now, I really want to get started with FPGA World. I access XESS website and Xilinx, but many of my friends also recommend me of @ltera . But now, after one year of work, I have save a small amount of money for investing in FPGA world. That why I repost this beginner thread.

For the first project, I intend to design a controller to stablize the DC motor speed using PID algorithm, implemented based on FPGA chip (this is just for hobby, a lobby for the other bigger projects that bring me money )

1. Can you recommend me, which FPGA chip I should use (Altera or Xilinx, ...) based on your work experiences. Please more specific on you recommendation. Thank you in advance!
(but I prefer Xilinx just because I heard it the first)

2. Can you recommend me which Dev Board for FPGA Chip I must use and where I can retrieve information about it?

Thank you again.
Best Regards,
BinhLH

 

[mendozaulises]

opencores beginner

Hello Semiconductor, I don't have much experience with FPGA's, however, I bought the Xilinx Spartan-3 Starter Kit, which fits an XC3s200 FPGA. This is a very complete FPGA, I think that it can fit most of the projects you need to develop.

For instance, in my case, I have implemented a 1024-point DCT, interfacing a Data Acquisition System and a VGA screen to show the results of the transformation, and still there is some chip area left.

This starter kit is not expensive, it costs about $100 dollars plus shipping costs. There are even some web pages that talk about projects made with this board. This Starter kit, has now besides the Spartan-3 board, a Cool-Runner CPLD board, that is, it has two development boards for the price of one.

Hope this helps you a bit.

Regards,

 

[yasser_shoukry]

however, I bought the Xilinx Spartan-3 Starter Kit, which fits an XC3s200 FPGA. This is a very complete FPGA, I think that it can fit most of the projects you need to develop.

Regards,

I was searching for this board on Xilinx website from two days and i discovered that Xilinx stopped the production of this kit.

So, do you know any other distributor for this kit as I am very intersted in buing this kit ?

thanx in advance

 

[tkbits]

The board is produced by Digilent, and they still sell it at US$99.

 

[yasser_shoukry]

Thanx tkbits alot

 

[zeeshanzia84]

>>The board is produced by Digilent, and they still sell it at US$99.

I've bought the kit from Digilentinc. But there are somethings you should keep in mind

1. The kit that digilentinc sells doesn't have a free CPLD kit.

2. It DOES NOT have ANY bundled software. So you'll have to download XILINX ISE AND MODELSIM yourself.

3. NO MANUALs (soft or hard copy) are provided with the digilent direct ordered kit. You'll have to download them as well.

4. If you can afford just a little more. I would recommend spending 50$ more for which you get the same kit but with XC3S1000 (1 million) gates chip....or just 20 $ more for 400 K gates chip XC3S400.
As, the gate count for your projects will gradually increase. And also if you're willing to use any opencores (www.opencores.org), it's better that way.

 

[samcheetah]

i would recommend the Spartan 3E Starter Kit priced at $149.

 

[sp]

how good if we could use altera quartus2 wth xilinx development board... as altera dev board is quite expensive...

sp

 

[samcheetah]

sp ive got a simillar one "Why do hotdogs come in packets of 10 when hotdog buns come in packets of 8?"

 

[salma ali bakr]

excuse my stupidity but i didn't quite get the comment about the hotdogs and the hotdog buns (as a reply to the question of SP)
can u elaborate samcheetah please so i would understand about the altera and xilinx boards differences

thanks,
Salma

 

[semiconductor]

So what are the main differences between 2 families of FPGA? Virtex and Spartan?

 

[chico_laranja]

Virtex is more advanced. Almost all Virtex comes with a PPC embedded.
Virtex has a 0 more in right side of price too.
But with a Spartan 3 you can build a little MIPS processor while in a good virtex you can put a Machintoch software running(I don't speak in the work that ir need for that, but it can).

 

[ds18s20]

Yah I think the Quartus 2 was a decision point in my case - I have worked with it before so when time came to break the bank for a decent high-end board I had to go with Cyclone.

Found one for $75 from HK

**broken link removed**

Part # TQD-CYC1c3FPGA and comes with Cyclone 1C3 and other goodies.

The trick is to get your Chinese friends to figure the transaction as none of the web sites are in English
**broken link removed**

 

[samcheetah]

excuse my stupidity but i didn't quite get the comment about the hotdogs and the hotdog buns (as a reply to the question of SP)
can u elaborate samcheetah please so i would understand about the @ltera and xilinx boards differences

sorry im replying late. actually i was busy with exams

actually sp shared his personal opinion that altera quatrus 2 is a nice development enviroment but the kits from altera are expensive. whereas the kits from xilinx are cheap. so thats why he wished that he could use altera quatrus 2 with xilinx dev boards.

whereas i was explaining a fact about life. things or events never come the way you want them to come. thats why hotdogs come in packets of 10 whereas hotdog buns come in packets of 8.

by the way i personally feel comfortable with the xilinx ISE + xilinx dev board combination. that maybe because i havent used quatrus. but i would definitely like to try out quatrus one day.