hi Guys,
>
> I would like to get started in the FPGA world.
> I intend to use the board to perform computations. Hence connectivity to
> and from the PC should be good and via usb.
>
> Am looking for a low cost fpga board with:
> 1. Inbuilt USB
> 2. Good to have - Ethernet port
When you say 'USB', are you intending to have a full USB stack on the board, so you can be an arbitrary USB endpoint (eg keyboard, mass storage, printer, camera)? Or will something like a USB-serial adaptor work - you talk to what you think is a UART, but it's converted by an additional chip to serial-over-USB.
The latter is much simpler, but imposes restrictions - you only show up as a serial port and you may be limited in speed (1 Mbps or so).
JTAG over USB is slightly different, but often has similar constraints.
Can I use low cost Papillon board for this purpose without soldering ( if
> there are any cables to facilitate data transfer )?
Papilio One appears to be USB over serial (FT232).
Do you have a particular preference of FPGA vendor?
Theo