Samples

You could probably get samples from any of these companies if you can convince them that your ongoing business is sufficient. You can pretty much forget samples if your ongoing usage is small. Also it's often easier to get samples (and freebies like software) from the "other" guys, i.e. the ones you don't currently do business with but are waiting in the wings to steal your sockets from your current supplier.

Small quantity purchases are usually at list price from the franchised distributors and your best place will depend on your location. I know that at least Xilinx has a policy of supporting the distributor that brings in your business, so although you can buy parts anywhere you will always get the best price from your "registered" distributor. If you're thinking of developing a new relation with Xilinx (and possibly others) you should think carefully about your own distributor preferences before you start.

Just my 2 cents, Gabor

"maxascent" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:DfmdnUpOU_ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

it is possible to get samples from: Atmel (FPSLIC), Actel, Altera, Lattice and Xilinx however you are probably easier to just buy what you want, both xilinx and altera have FPGAs in their online shops, prices start from about

10USD

optionally it may actually make more sense to buy some low low cost eval board

avnet S3e board is 69USD

89EUR spartan3 module

there are lattice cheap boards 60EUR or so

at 99-149 USD price there are many more

you can of course do the board yourself

sometimes ebay has FPGAs are low low price, so I made my first 2Million Gate FPGA board with 49USD pulled BGA what I got from ebay

its all up to you, if you have no FPGAs and no FPGA boards I suggest buying the first eval board, either TREX C1 or then wait for the Xilinx Spartan3E, of if your budget is below 100USD then choose from other offerings

--
Antti Lukats
http://www.xilant.com

Hi Antti, Do you use special tool(s) to solder a BGA pulled IC ? Or only a magnifying glass ?

"Jerome" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:43c54fb6$0$11500$ snipped-for-privacy@news.free.fr...

no tools and no magnfier either :)

1.27mm BGAs are pretty easy to handle, but it balls up solder the GND at the corners then some VCCINT and VCCAUX, the JTAG some IO pins and eval board is ready ! I had some pictures of one such board online sometimes ago but at the moment I cant find them

1mm BGAs are harder, and with 0.8mm is better not to try it at all. I tried once to solder the PCI interface pins of the TI's TMS6205 DSP in 0.8mm BGA and there I failed, maybe was too impatient.

Antti

Hi Antti, Thnaks for your reply I checked this excellent site :

from Ulrich Radig

And there is there a video showing SMD IC soldering :

Some points are unclear for me t : what kind of glue does one put on the IC pads at the beginning ? And how does one put the solder ? directly as it seems from the video ?

Check out the following page for more SMD info/ideas/fun

and

Xilinx CPLDs, Spartan-3 FPGAs, Platform Flash PROMs, development boards, etc. are available directly from the Xilinx online store. The online store may not always have the absolute lowest price for a given device but it's generally similar.

These same items, and much more, are available from the various Xilinx Sales Partners.

--------------------------------- Steven K. Knapp Applications Manager, Xilinx Inc. General Products Division Spartan-3/-3E FPGAs

--------------------------------- The Spartan(tm)-3 Generation: The World's Lowest-Cost FPGAs.

..except, if you want the CR2 CPLDs, in either XC2C32A or XC2C64A sizes, then they simply do not exist in the online store. 128 & 256 do show.

Is this a not-for-new-designs message ?

-jg