Is the Elbert V2 FPGA board discontinued?

[SpannersToSparks]

Hi

I just bought a copy of Practical Electronics for Inventors, and it has a great practical section on FPGAs using the Elbert V2 and its dedicated software. I really want to get stuck into it but have hit a snag - I can't find any boards available outside the US or ebay, and they are vastly inflated in price. Sinelec Germany seem to have some but their site is broken and cart doesn't work.

Is the board discontinued? If so does anyone know if there is a replacement for it that will use the Elbert Software? I know I could buy some other FPGA and use any one of a number of other software packages, but that's not why I bought the book 

Edit: Looks like there are some in Slovakia and Portugal, may have to just suck up the postage If anyone is looking for one, these guys were the cheapest http://www.botnroll.com/en/others/1786-elbert-v2-spartan-3a-fpga-development-board.html?search_query=Elbert+V2+-+Spartan+3A+FPGA+Development+Board&results=1 shipping to UK

[rstofer]

One point made in the documentation attached to the product page is that this is a very small device.  Try to implement the SD card and you quickly run out of logic.  Not for the logic of the SD card itself but for the CPU to drive the logic.

https://medium.com/adventures-in-electronics/meet-elbert-2141364011dc

I don't know why Numato doesn't have a sales outlet in the UK, they have them in a lot of other countries.  Maybe Germany is supposed to cover the EU.

[ebastler]

I have ordered several boards directly from Numato. They ship via DHL, which has always been quick and reliable for me. Shipping costs are a bit painful unless you order 2 or 3 boards at once, however.

They show the Elbert V2 as "out of stock" at the moment, but I have seen that before with this and other boards. It does not mean that they are discontinued.

Alternatively, you might want to look at the Mimas V2, which is essentially a Spartan 6 version of the Elbert V2, and hence brings a significantly more powerful FPGA with similar peripherals. Personally, I like the original Mimas: The same Spartan 6 without much I/O periphery at all, but in a nice small form factor, with plenty of FGPA pins brought out to headers. Neat for integrating with your own piggy-back boards.