Hi. I am interested in fpga for a while and planning to study about it but where I live, dollar is x4 more valuable than our money. So, I could not match the money to buy a decent fpga. I wonder if I buy a cheap fpga board from china, would it be helpful? Or if you have any suggestions for me, I would be greatful to hear.
Sylvana W. wrote: > I wonder if I buy a cheap fpga board from china, would it be helpful? You can start with any. But the less additional components are on the board the more you must supply yourself. And afterwards you cannot be sure wether its a problem of the self made hardware or the FPGA design. BTW: those FPGA boards don't become worthless over night (unless you destroy it). So when you start with a small one you won't lose much money when you sell it in a year. And then you will know yourself what you need further on.
Thank you for answer. I think I got plenty of addional components so that wont be a problem.
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#5372834
To initially save on the bucks, you could just run simulations. Get familiar with first schematic entry, then VHDL. Until you program a device the first time, some months will have passed. After being able to actually program a device you need some hardware to interface to. Well, an eval board would allow for the first steps. You could ask here for a spare eval bord by the way. I possibly have one. Not the latest technology though.
Thanks you are so kind. By the way that simulation thing makes sense! Of course I will search but I would also like to hear your opinion. Which program should I use for simulation?
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#5372944
You could just download Altera Quartus or Xilinx ISE and/or Vivado. They are all available for free.
Okay I am on it.
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#5373144
Have a look for ICE40 boards (i.e. from Olimex) - they are cheap and there's an open source development system available.
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#5373149
The Altera tool, Quartus, doesn't support schematic entry anymore. But some others do. What is also fine is test pattern, meaning timing diagrams by graphic editor. Otherwise you have to rely on the VHDL testbench. Requiring you to be fluent with VHDL. BTW, forget Verilog, another Hardware description language. It is preferred in the States, but less usefull. A different approach. An incomplete list of manufacturers is : Xlilinx Altera Lattice Microsemi
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#5373162
Xilinx heissen die... Und Altera heißt jetzt Intel.
casual user wrote: > The Altera tool, Quartus, doesn't support schematic entry anymore. But > some others do. Not that I use that feature, but to my knowledge, Quartus Prime still supports editing configurations as block symbol files (as it always did).
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#5375672
Thosch wrote: > Und Altera heißt jetzt Intel. Yo. And Microsemi is Microchip now: https://www.microchip.com/investor/Pressrelease/MCHP%20to%20Acquire%20Microsemi%20Corporation.030118.pdf So the actual list is: Xilinx Intel (Altera) Lattice Microchip (Microsemi) Duke
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#5375941
Duke Scarring wrote: > So the actual list is: > Xilinx > Intel (Altera) > Lattice > Microchip (Microsemi) There are also: Gowin -> http://www.gowinsemi.com/product/littlebee/ Efinix -> https://www.efinixinc.com/products-trion.html Efinix is a startup with no products so far, but looks interesting. https://www.edn.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/other/4460483/New-FPGA-maker-targets-cost-sensitive-space Gowin is chinese and hard to get in Europe. Andy
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