I've had several courses on Digital Logic, ......but that was in the early
1980s !! I was very familiar with the 7400 series of integrated circuits, and could name the gates and truth tables off the top of my head. A lot of years have passed since I worked with these chips, and I've fallen way behind in technology. But now I'd like to do some experimenting on my own. I wanted to build something like a simple Annunciator Panel type project, so I dug out my old logic books to brush up. What I found out was that I needed about 50-75 Logic Gates for my particular design, though I'm sure I could pare that down some, but the thought of mounting and wiring (I used to wire-wrap a lot) about 25 or more Integrated Circuits just kind of discouraged me. I was asking a fellow Technician about maybe using some sort of EEProm, and he told me about Field Programmable Gate Arrays...according to what I've since learned, it looks like I should be able to program a FPGA with my logic design(or reprogram it if I make a mistake)....my logic would be a series of And, Nor, etc. gates, Flip Flops, etc, and use contact closures for inputs and LEDs for outputs. Am I correct in my interpretation of what a FPGA is, and how it operates? I was looking at 10 inputs (contact closures) and 10 simple LEDs for the outputs on this first project. Since I'm not familiar with the pin assignments for the I/Os, and what's needed to program these FPGAs, would any of you have a recommendation on what family and size of FPGA I should start with? Or is an FPGA really what I need? What about a programmer (or programming method) and software? I'd be most comfortable using a software that graphically displays my gates and their connections if there is such a thing, but since this is just going to be a playtoy for now, I guess cost needs to be a consideration, so inexpensive developmental would be best. Is there a Complete Experimenter's Kit available for someone with my interests? Or would I be better off buying individual components to suit my needs? I've read some of the posts, and it sounds like you guys are WAAAY up on the curve....can you help me get started? Thanks, John.- posted
20 years ago