beginner want to buy FPGA demoboard,can anyone suggest?

[david-IT]

I just learn not long and want to buy FPGA demoboard,can anyone suggest?not too expensive.

[jancumps]

I bought a PapilioPro. Because I can also use it as a protocol/logic analyser, I find the costs acceptable.

[suicidaleggroll]

What do you plan to do with it?  What areas of FPGAs interest you?  What does "not too expensive" mean to you?

In the world of FPGAs, I'd consider anything under $100 to be "not too expensive", but to some people it would have to be under $20.  For $100, the "Arty" by Digilent is pretty powerful.  I just wish they wired up the FT2232 for 245 FIFO mode instead of UART so you could get some decent transfer speeds over USB.

[obiwanjacobi]

I bought a cheap cyclone 2 board on eBay but I found out that the IDE is more important than the details of the part itself. Turned out that the cyclone 2 was only supported by a version of the IDE that did not run on the latest Windows OS.

[daveshah]

I bought a cheap cyclone 2 board on eBay but I found out that the IDE is more important than the details of the part itself. Turned out that the cyclone 2 was only supported by a version of the IDE that did not run on the latest Windows OS.

Although the Cyclone II is not supported by the latest Quartus, I have successfully run Quartus II 13.0sp1 (which does support it) on Windows 8.1 and 10 (regardless of official support).

[obiwanjacobi]

I bought a cheap cyclone 2 board on eBay but I found out that the IDE is more important than the details of the part itself. Turned out that the cyclone 2 was only supported by a version of the IDE that did not run on the latest Windows OS.

Although the Cyclone II is not supported by the latest Quartus, I have successfully run Quartus II 13.0sp1 (which does support it) on Windows 8.1 and 10 (regardless of official support).

Okay, I should have said: it runs but the devices won't install properly...

[alexanderbrevig]

maybe give this board https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/the-nandland-go-board-the-first-fpga-board-you-should-buy/ a try?

[cncjerry]

I know people ask this question over and over.  I have the same question.  I've worked with a lot of micros and most recently been using the STM32F4 series.  I am looking for a development board (either XILINX or Altera) that would have virtual com port over USB, RS232, lots of digital I/O, ADC and be faster for timing the differences between pulses coming from the various I/O ports.

My primary application is measuring the differences from a start pulse to three subsequent pulses that come from the vanes of a chronograph.  As the projectile goes through the vanes the more accuracy I get from the timing the the more useful the data.  My code is very simple.  I wait for the start pulse interrupt and reset a timer.  I then read the timer as the three subsequent pulses come from the vanes.  I then send the timer counts to an attached computer for analysis and logging. 

In my case, I am looking for something under $500 that would have the complete development system as well.  If it is more compatible with the STM32 series the better.  I Don't need any Arduino shield connections, etc.

[danadak]

Consider a Cypress PSOC, it has a ton of HW modules, ARM CPU,
lots of analog, tools free, small dip proto boards in the $ 10 range
for the processor. Can be programmed in Verilog as well, has digital
filter, tons of video training and support.

http://www.cypress.com/products/32-bit-arm-cortex-m-psoc
http://www.cypress.com/products/32-bit-arm-cortex-m3-psoc-5lp
http://www.cypress.com/documentation/development-kitsboards/cy8ckit-059-psoc-5lp-prototyping-kit-onboard-programmer-and

Regards, Dana.

[bazsa56]

If you're a total beginner I'd go with something made by Digilent. My first board was a Digilent Nexys 2 (500k version) and it's been pretty solid over the years. It's pretty well documented and the onboard USB JTAG works great. Coding for these things is a lot harder then coding for your average MCU, so having support and examples is a great thing.

I woudn't recommend this particular board now cause it is somewhat dated, but something newer would probably do. I also like Digilent's Adept, a lot easier to use then Impact, though it might work just fine for other stuff with Xilinx chips.

[rstofer]

I have used Digilent boards for all of my projects.  I like Digilent a lot!

I recently bought a board from ztex.de - version 2.01.  http://www.ztex.de/usb-fpga-2/usb-fpga-2.01.e.html
The reason I bring this up is that it has the Cypress USB chip on board and sample code is provided for various ways to transfer data between the FPGA and a PC.  I haven't built anything with the board but I have played around with the examples and the Debug Board (recommended) and everything works are described.

I would look for a better way to architect your project.  The learning curve for FPGAs is high and steep!  Instead, I would consider using a CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device) to implement the timers (really just counters) and use something else to process the results.  Arduino?  Raspberry Pi?  It's pretty easy to set up an SPI bus between a uC and a CPLD.  Add in a couple of control lines to signal when data is available and you're good to go.  Just clock the timers out onto the SPI bus.

There will be limitations on word length with the uC SPI widgets.  You will have to work around them.  Not a big deal to break the times (counters) up into chunks.

You can easily run at 100 MHz on the clock so 10 nS resolution.  Is that sufficient?  A 3000 fps projectile flying through a 2 foot gap takes about 667 uS +- 10 nS.  Pretty good resolution!

http://store.digilentinc.com/coolrunner-ii-cpld-starter-board-limited-time/  - Pretty cheap!

[Fsck]

My first board was a digilent nexys 4. with a student discount, it was like 170+shipping. it is really easy to use. I'm not sure how other boards are compared to it though.

if I were to buy a new board now, because I really wish the nexys 4 came with more memory, I would probably buy this cyclone 5 gx kit:  http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&No=830
hello big block of ddr!

[dal3boy]

I got Lattice MachXO3
http://nl.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Lattice/LCMXO3LF-6900C-S-EVN/?qs=Fobv33ltQGiK18aW8UMA8Q%3d%3d

Really cheap and good FPGA board for starters

[Ice-Tea]

Latticr IceCube2 has always seemed like z good deal to me. Or the Terassic DeO-nano. I have one of those, easy to set up and has a lot of stuff that will nog get in the wat at first but offers great added value down the road...

[mhelin]

Terasic has new De0-Nano-SoC with Altera Cyclone with ARM A9 SoC core on chip:
http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=165&No=941

Mimas V2 is nice if you like Xilink FPGAs more:
http://numato.com/mimas-v2-spartan-6-fpga-development-board-with-ddr-sdram/

[rstofer]

Terasic has new De0-Nano-SoC with Altera Cyclone with ARM A9 SoC core on chip:
http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=165&No=941

This is a really nice board!  The fact that it comes in two configurations, one for the hardware engineer and a different one for the software guy, makes it really attractive.  This is especially true since either configuration can be downloaded from Terasic.  I might just order one of these.

Having an ARM9 core makes interfacing the FPGA with the real world a lot less challenging.

[andre_teprom]

I bought a cheap cyclone 2 board on eBay but I found out that the IDE is more important than the details of the part itself. Turned out that the cyclone 2 was only supported by a version of the IDE that did not run on the latest Windows OS

I also bought a cheap development kit based on Cyclone II (EP2C5T144C8) and I'm quite regretful for that, once I quickly wanted to move from basic HDL experiments to the Nios2 core, but the chip in question had not enough cells to fit the core and the peripherals inside, indeed with few more resources could do that.

[dupreezarmand]

You need to decide which manufacturer you want to go with. For me personally the choice is Xilinx or Altera.

Personally I like Altera more, but only because I find Quartus much easier to use than Vivado. The fact that Terasic offer some awesome Altera FPGA Dev boards probably has something to do with it as well.

Have a look at the following boards. They are "affordable"...

1. http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=165&No=593
2. http://store.digilentinc.com/zybo-zynq-7000-arm-fpga-soc-trainer-board/
3. https://www.arrow.com/en/products/deca/arrow-development-tools

DECA is a nice little board, especially if you want to venture into image processing.

[fki82]

Depending on the country you live, it can be challenging to order this FPGA boards.

You always have to consider the additional costs for tax if you buy from abroad.
So some of the "cheap" boards can get expensive very fast, if you order them from the "wrong" country.

There are some shops which allow you to order from distributors which don't sell to private customers.
Usually they are the easiest option to get such stuff if it isn't available anywhere else.