Choosing the right FPGA board

I'd stick with the newer FPGAs. To make your learning as relevant as possible.

Another approach is to pay to go to a seminar where you get to keep the FPGA board. Cyclone V SOC or SmartFusion2 for $99 each.

FrewCen,

You didn't specify your budget and I noticed that for the Digilent prices, you showed the 'Acedemic' price...

I recently chose to get a ZYBO from Digilent and am happy with my decision. In my opinion, SoC based development kits are the way to go because they p rovide the most learning opportunity. It is also my opinion that industry i s in need of SoC engineers, so the learning will be relevant.

With the ZYBO, you can learn FPGA design as well as embedded uC design. You can pretty well skip all the ARM related development if you want, and focu s on just FPGA stuff, but having the ARM cores there makes for a very versa tile learning opportunity.

If you are interested in Embedded Linux, I recommend you get at least 512MB DDR. The Basys 3 would make a poor embedded Linux system IMO, but it can a nd has been done. I prefer to not limit myself at the outset and get more h ardware than I think I'll need. It's not that expensive...

Along with the dev board, a decent book will be very helpful. I recomment A dvanced FPGA Design by Steve Kilts.

Good luck on your Journey, BradW

You should understand that Xilinx v Altera is a bit like PC v Mac (not necessarily that way round) - you aren't just choosing a part vendor, you're choosing a whole ecosystem and toolchain which will have a big impact on the experience for have.

I'd avoid the older parts (Cyclone II and III) since those may not be supported in future versions of the Altera toolchain. The same might apply to the Spartan 3E, though I'm not as familiar with that.

One hidden caveat is that the later Altera devices (eg Cyclone V) take much more RAM in your PC for synthesis than older ones (eg 1.5 v 6 GiB). So depends what kind of a PC you're going to use.

Be aware that the Zynq (and the DE1-SoC) have an ARM onboard, and some of the peripherals are on the ARM side rather than the FPGA side. You can, however, ignore the ARM side if you like and just use the FPGA peripherals.

Digilent and Terasic are both suppliers of education boards, which explains why the costs of those boards are lower than other vendors. Their popularity also means there are more educational resources for using their boards.

Theo

I would second Theo's comments and add that you can download the design sof tware of both X and A and play around with it to see what you like more. Th e difference in the design software is much bigger then in the devices.

I also would use new generation devices, either with Arm (Zynq, Cyclone V S oc) or without (Artix 7, Cyclone V). The Arm devices are much more complex to start with, on the other hand they might be more interesting for you wit h your classic software background. You can use Linux on the Arm and off-lo ad some tasks to the FPGA part. If you want to use Ethernet and/or USB, I w ould recommend this approach.

Thomas

A couple you didn't mention from Terasic that warrant consideration: DE1-SoC Board ($175) Cyclone V GX Starter Kit ($179)

The latter does not have an arm cpu, but does have an arduino header, for further expansion using aruduino shields.

Andy

Theo, I think you've underestimated how aggressively both X and A have been pruning their old silicon from the latest tools. Xilinx Vivado has no support for anything other than 7 series parts, ISE has been moved to "sustaining". Altera Quartus II, likewise, has dropped support for even the Cyclone III from the 14.x branch.

So, of the OP's list, the Artix-7, Z-7010, and Cyclone V still have the full support of their vendors. The rest already have the gold pen for all they've done, the cardboard box on their desks, and security standing over their shoulders.

Hi,

Don't do it - ver old, very small, on-board XTAL is junk.

Nice board, I have one too - HDMI In and Out, which is rather unique at the price point. LX9 is quite small, and the SDRAM RAM bandwidth is quite low for playing with video streams. I don't think that you can use the on-board memory with EDK projects, so it isn't a good platform for embedded develop ment. You will need a soldering iron to add any other peripherals other tha n the basic on board set.

gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, 16-bit VGA - 125$

I've got it's big brother, the Zedboard and it is great. I quite like the l ook of the Zybo and would consider it if I didn't have a Zedboard.

PS/2, flash - 81$

Have not used, but I assume that it is only still available to be compatibl e with existing coursework

PS/2 -

PS/2, SD, flash - 127$

Very old FPGA, but has lots of goodies to play with (e.g. SDRAM+FLASH+SRAM, audio codec...). I also assume that it is only still available to be compa tible with existing reference material.

If you are interested in embedded Linux, then also look at the DE1-SoC Boar d. I've go one on my desk at work at the moment and it is quite nice. It is an approximate match for the Zybo.

If I was spending my own money, I'ld go for a Zybo (if interested in Embedd ed Linux) or a Basys3 (if primarily interested in FPGA logic design). But t hen I guess I am a bit of a Xilinx fanboy as that is what I learnt on.

Mike

THANK YOU ALL for this discussion, you helped a lot. I have chosen Altera Cyclone IV on a different (Arduino-like) board, since that comes easier for me, but if I ever come to a larger chunk of money again, I'll go for the processor directly on-board.

Thank you all again.

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