FPGA Central

I want to start with Xilinx FPGA's. How does one start cheap? I see a
development kit from Digilent for $99 US.
It is for a Spartan IIE. But then I see there is a Spartan III but no
development kit for this.

What are the options. Can the Spartan IIE 200K gate do a lot of designs. Is
that enough gates?

--
Yours sincerely,


Bobi Mageroski
Practel Pty. Ltd.

Tel: 61 2 9957 1797
Fax: 61 2 9957 2892


e-mail: [email protected]
www.practel.com.au

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"bobi" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I want to start with Xilinx FPGA's. How does one start cheap? I see a
> development kit from Digilent for $99 US.
> It is for a Spartan IIE. But then I see there is a Spartan III but no
> development kit for this.

Memec had Spartan III S50J kits but those are all sold out
also notice that did use "J" version with only 2.5 IO and no BRAM
more S3 kits from Memec are exptected but timeline unknown

> What are the options. Can the Spartan IIE 200K gate do a lot of designs. Is
> that enough gates?

thats a lot and pretty much enough

antti

bobi wrote:

> I want to start with Xilinx FPGA's. How does one start cheap? I see a
> development kit from Digilent for $99 US.
> It is for a Spartan IIE. But then I see there is a Spartan III but no
> development kit for this.
>
> What are the options. Can the Spartan IIE 200K gate do a lot of designs. Is
> that enough gates?
>
Depending on your budget I would advice you to take a look at the
modular development boards at http://www.burched.biz/.

As you become more experienced with FPGAs and your needs grow, these
boards will offer you the opportunity to expand.

The Shortwave radio design I refer to on my website uses a 100K gate Spartan
(http://www.andraka.com). Not so long ago, 200K gates was considered an
enormous device. At that time (about 6 years ago), I was using mostly 25K gate
XC4025E's and doing some pretty sophisticated signal processing with 3 or four
of them on a board. With that in mind, 200K gates should be ample for what you
intend.

bobi wrote:

> I want to start with Xilinx FPGA's. How does one start cheap? I see a
> development kit from Digilent for $99 US.
> It is for a Spartan IIE. But then I see there is a Spartan III but no
> development kit for this.
>
> What are the options. Can the Spartan IIE 200K gate do a lot of designs. Is
> that enough gates?
>
> --
> Yours sincerely,
>
> Bobi Mageroski
> Practel Pty. Ltd.
>
> Tel: 61 2 9957 1797
> Fax: 61 2 9957 2892
>
> e-mail: [email protected]
> www.practel.com.au
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Important Notice:
> This email is for the named recipient only. Its contents are confidential.
> If you are not the authorised recipient you must not use, disclose or copy
> any of these contents. If you receive this email in error please contact us
> immediately and delete the email from your system.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------

--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email [email protected]
http://www.andraka.com

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