Spartan 3E Starter Kit, Spartan Starter Kit, Cyclone II. Which one is the best suit me?
I am new in FPGA. And I am thinking to implement my DSP and Baseband Wireless Communication Algorithm to FPGA (as a hobby). I am looking for the lowest price and most useful that I can learn it myself. Which one would you suggest? And which one is the most popular used in inudstry (I mean Xilinx or Altera)? Thx.
Spartan 3E is the latest of three you mentioned. It is a decent kit with good features. You can get them from digilent or Xilinx themselves. Cyclone III would be a better choice as it gives more resources for the same cost but I doubt that the kit costs less than a S3E kit. Bottom line is if you can afford it go for Cyclone III or else Spartan 3E.
If you have no prior experience with a kit or FPGAs in general you better start implementing your algorithms and simulate them to get a feel of what resources are exactly required. Both Xilinx ISE and Altera Quartus have free editions.