FPGA for beginners ?

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Frank B

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Hi,

i'm interested in FPGAs - i don't have a special goal, i'm just interested. Is there an easy to use kit, not too expensive, that can be used for some beginner-experiments (like "blink") ? I'd like to use it in connection with a Teensy.

A tutorial in German would be awesome ... ?

I've heard there are even C-Compilers - not good, but might be good enough for me ;-) Any hints or links where to start...?
 
Hi,

i'm interested in FPGAs - i don't have a special goal, i'm just interested. Is there an easy to use kit, not too expensive, that can be used for some beginner-experiments (like "blink") ? I'd like to use it in connection with a Teensy.

A tutorial in German would be awesome ... ?

I've heard there are even C-Compilers - not good, but might be good enough for me ;-) Any hints or links where to start...?

I would be interested too (https://forum.pjrc.com/threads/45407-FPGA-for-Teensy?p=148729&viewfull=1#post148729)!

Maybe Paul can advice (https://www.pjrc.com/store/xcs10xl_plcc.html in stock 2012!)
 
Hi,

i'm interested in FPGAs - i don't have a special goal, i'm just interested. Is there an easy to use kit, not too expensive, that can be used for some beginner-experiments (like "blink") ? I'd like to use it in connection with a Teensy.

A tutorial in German would be awesome ... ?

I've heard there are even C-Compilers - not good, but might be good enough for me ;-) Any hints or links where to start...?

I got one of these DE0-Nano boards a long time ago. I never got a chance to get into it, but I liked the form factor (0.1" headers) and it seemed to be reasonably capable. Not too expensive either. It is an Altera Cyclone IV board.

It is $80 from Terasic (maker of the board - they have a downloadable software CD also):
http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=165&No=593&PartNo=1

Adafruit has it for $99 (the Adafruit page lists the specs on it):
https://www.adafruit.com/product/451

As I recall I was able to get updated software from Altera as a big download (no charge). But I never got a chance to get into the software or learn its limits/capabilities. Not sure about C support. I was planning to use Verilog.

I originally found it via a Circuit Cellar article in which someone programmed a custom softcore processor into it (IIRC some kind of crypto, I forget). Sounded reasonably powerful.

--------------------------
Edit: FYI - additional sources for a lesser markup:
Digikey $86.25 : https://www.digikey.com/products/en...bedded-complex-logic-fpga-cpld/796?k=de0-nano
Mouser $86.25 : http://www.mouser.com/search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=0virtualkey0virtualkeyP0082
Newark $86.92 : http://www.newark.com/terasic-technologies/p0082/cyclone-iv-e22f17c6n-fpga-de0/dp/78T4479

Also - on Youtube search for "de0-nano" and there are a bunch of videos on it.
 
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