Electronics > Beginners
learning FPGA for beginners
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hussamaldean:
Hi all,
I am planning to learn FPGA as controller for my PhD thesis. however, I am not sure which one to choose

give your opinion objectively.

 
hamster_nz:
Pick the one with the features you need, then the best documentation. It also helps to have the same tooling as your mentor uses, but not essential.

Price should have very little input on the decission a board that doesn't have yhe features you need, or you cant use due to lack of documentation isn't worth the money.
hussamaldean:

--- Quote from: hamster_nz on September 28, 2018, 06:41:25 am ---Pick the one with the features you need, then the best documentation. It also helps to have the same tooling as your mentor uses, but not essential.

Price should have very little input on the decission a board that doesn't have yhe features you need, or you cant use due to lack of documentation isn't worth the money.

--- End quote ---
thanks for your reply. however, I am looking for one to be used as controller such as PID, Fuzzy Logic and AI control
Ferenc:
I wouldn't recommend Xilinx Spartan-6. It's outdated, their newest design suit doesn't even support this family, only the older software.

Also, it's worth to checkout Digilent's Xilinx boards: https://store.digilentinc.com/fpga-development-boards-kits-from-digilent/
They are more expensive, then the ones you showed, but they are full of useful stuff, that can help you learn. Buttons, switches, leds, lcd screens, peripherals, etc.

About Altera: I have never used their product, so I can't say anything.
kizmit99:
I can't speak to whether or not they would fit your need, but I have used both of the Cyclone based boards you've listed.  (Actually on a second look I haven't used the specific Cyclone-IV board you've shown, but one that looks very similar and appears to have the exact same peripherals)...

Between those two boards I would recommend the Cyclone-IV board for getting up to speed (learning).  It contains several I/O peripherals that can be used in learning projects.  Without those you would have to wire-up to an external proto-board, or something similar.  The Cyclone-II board is (IMO) geared more toward being plugged into an external project.  While it does provide the necessary support components for the FPGA to operate (boot EEPROM, voltage regulators and an oscillator) that is all it provides.  It makes for a very sparse prototyping environment.

Both boards are relatively "old" technology, but the FPGAs do provide a surprisingly large amount of internal resources (plenty to get up to speed on FPGAs at least).  The Cyclone-IV does provide more internal resources than the Cyclone-II.

Hope that's of some help.
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