fpga beginner board

[exapod]

I'm a total beginner with fpgas and i would like some advice on what board to buy to start experimenting.
I am an EE student so for some board i may have some discount (not on the digilent site, i am not an US student). My budget is 100 dollar.
I found:

http://numato.com/elbert-v2-spartan-3a-fpga-development-board : 30 dollar or 20 with acadamec discount

http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavPath=2,400,790&Prod=BASYS2 : 90 dollar

and the three papilio board:

http://store.gadgetfactory.net/papilio-one-250k/ : 38 dollar

http://store.gadgetfactory.net/papilio-one-500k/ : 65 dollar

http://store.gadgetfactory.net/papilio-pro/ : 85 dollar

The numato lab one is the cheaper but has only spi flash programming and a 50K fpga .
The digilent board is similar at the numato but has jtag and a 100K fpga.
The papilio boards have only a bigger fpga or external ram but lacks all the interfaces (vga, seven segment display, leds, etc..) so for the price i don't think they are a good investement.

I'm looking only at xlinx spartan 3/6 because i would like to make some custom fpga pcb and the xilinx parts are available at my current supplier and don't cost a fortune.

Thanks for the help.





 

[Unixon]

If you aren't low on money, pick the fattest FPGA you can afford with all required interfaces and auxiliary on-board devices.
All of boards listed above are under $100 anyway.

But honestly I would finish and test my design in simulator before buying any boards at all.

[Dongulus]

Where are you located?

[legacy]

choosing the right fpga board depends on your purpose.

in my case i am developing a MIP1 SoC and papilio-pro is exactly what i need because it has a big spartan6 with has
* enough BRAM for my fill-in SoC firmware
* a built in SDRAM controller
and also the board comes with a soldered big SRAM of 64Mbyte and little IO expansion.

I only needed to plug-in two uart<->usb adaptors (FTDI breakout) for "user uart port" and "debug uart port".
that's perfect at all, definitively!

I'm looking only at xlinx spartan 3/6 because i would like to make some custom fpga pcb and the xilinx parts are available at my current supplier and don't cost a fortune.

Sparkfun has a breakout board equipped with Spartan3E-500 @ 50Mhz, unfortunately it went out-of-stock and then EOL, but there is still a guy on ebay who is selling similar breakout boards at cheap prices, also making you to choose if you prefer 80Mhz, 40Mhz, 50Mhz, and spartan3e-500 or spartan3e-250. I have bought a tiny 250KLE board and it's fine.

[Scrts]

Take DE0-nano into account. You're targeting really old Spartan-3E/3A FPGAs... I would offer you to have a look at Altera SoCKit, It's kinda expensive with your budget, but it's really great!

[miguelvp]

Where are you located?

@exapod, you should answer his question, you never know why he is asking you that

[exapod]

Where are you located?

Italy.

[legacy]

what is your purpose about fpga project ?

[Dongulus]

Where are you located?

@exapod, you should answer his question, you never know why he is asking you that

Also, what's your address, phone number, and bank account number. I promise it's nothing nefarious. 

Anyway, the reason I asked is because I've had a Nexys 2 I've been looking to sell away reasonably cheap. Unfortunately the shipping cost to Italy would be prohibitively expensive.