I'm looking for a ** low cost, flexible ** way of sending/receiving signals in MS Excel or Access. My applications are not time critical, so this is not a big factor. Hopefully FPGA is the answer I am looking for. Does anyone know of a library of FPGA C/C++ functions & Associated DLL's?
I am a novice, and any information I can get would be appreciated.
"signals" or ASCII data? What are you trying to move where and for what reason.
Why "hopefully" and FPGA rather than an MCU? That is an interesting decision for a novice.
DLLs run in windows. Were you thinking of running windows on an FPGA?
Explain the problem. Obviously you have data you want to move somewhere. You appear to have decided on excel or Access so I assume you have data on a PC.
What is this data for? Ie why are you taking it off the PC. What do you want to do with it.
Normally I would suggest Rs232 comms to an MCU as a simple way but without more information it is hard to give any advice.
BTW FPGA's are good where thare are not MCU's to do the job or you are looking at large numbers. For less than 10,000 doing something specialised I would suggest an MCU might be better.
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Also, FPGAs are good for mainly parallel/combinatorial problems that has a fixed processing algorithm like calculating CRCs or implementing a PID controller. For sequential problems like implementing a communications protocol, CPUs are better, not because they are faster (FPGAs at the same clock speed are usually faster) but because implementing a sequential circuit on an FPGA requires a lot of memory elements, particularly D flip-flops - something very expensive on FPGAs.
Block memory is relatively expensive (but getting much cheaper) on FPGA's, but I'd argue that at less than $0.005 per flop, D flip-flops within modern FPGA's are not expensive. Many people consider them free because it is so hard to use them all up before running out of some other resource.
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