Though you'll have to dig into the architecture to determine what a Slice/CLB/ALM/LE means in terms of numbers of LUTs and FFs.
That's why I came here. I was hoping I could just ask a few questions instead of earning my own PhD in FPGAs first. :-D
I'm really just looking to get my feet wet with FPGA programming right now. So maybe that Cyclone II board will do for starters.
Both the Cyclone II and the Spartan 3 series are very old (antiquated) parts, the only thing going for them is they are cheaper than the newer parts
Right now for me budget is paramount. And since I'm thinking that I might actually end up using several of these boards in my robot projects, keeping the cost down per board is a major consideration. But then again, a low-cost FPGA that isn't powerful enough to do much of anything useful wouldn't be such a great deal either.
My confession to being clueless
I'm not even sure if an FPGA will be useful for me. I just heard stories that they have a lot of advantages over digital processors or microcontrollers when it comes to speeding things up, especially in terms of things like pattern recognition, or "tracking" of objects, etc.
Currently I have no clue how I might even actually use them, but I would like to learn and gain some experience. As I stated in the OP the I found the Cyclone II board attractive because of both the small footprint, and the low cost. I can also get them for around $15. And the JTAG programmer is only about $8.
I don't mind them being antiquated as long as they are still usable:
In addition, the latest 2 releases of the QuartusII IDE from Altera, do not provide native support for the series below CycloneIII, anymore.
Well, that sounds a bit scary because I would hate to buy the Cyclone II boards only to discover that I can no longer find free software to program them. I was thinking the Quartus II IDE would work for the Cyclone II. If that's not the case, then I could end up being up the creek without a paddle. The boards would be useless if I can't program them.
I have an even more antiquated story to tell
I actually already own a very old Xilinx FPGA and CPLD boards. These were quite expensive way back when I got them. But I still have them complete with the programming software. I can play with these boards, but as I say they are seriously outdated.
XS40-005E FPGA
And the XS95-108 CPLD
I still have both of these boards and an old Windows 98 computer set up to program them. So I could just play with them some I suppose. I was thinking of upgrading to something more modern before I waste a lot of time programming boards and chips that aren't even manufactured anymore.
This is why I was thinking of picking up something like the Altera Cyclone II. Ironically, even that is considered obsolete already! This stuff goes out of style too darn quick!