CPLD/FPGA StartUp selection

[WarSim]

Seems my experience in this areas is old with a new device called GALs, so I guess I am a beginner.
I figured I would check with you guys before I get my stuff. 
I searched a cross referenced everything I could find. 
This is for my DIY projects not my work.
  My selection criteria.
    Low density pins compatible with a home mill (.5 mm pitch max, .8mm/SOIC/DIP would be better but I can't find it).
    Free programming tools. 
    Lower cost. 

I am planning on entering with ISE, Spartan3A and CoolRunner II. 
I did find Digilent sources in Canada (Robot Shop) and (Digikey), neither has all.
  CMod a CoolRunner 40Dip breakout board - QFP44
  CoolRunner II starter kit.
  BASYS the Spartan 3A/AN dev board - QFP100
  JTAG HS2 programming cable. 

Anyone have words of warning/alternates on my tool selection? 

 

[Aeon]

I worked with the Coolrunner-2-Starterkit and the HS1 Kabel. They are both okay. The HS2 looks like the successor of the HS1.
I had no trouble with that Programmer.

I can give you one tip: Start with one Starterkit to get your feet wet and than if you like it buy more 

I think some of the guys here know more about the other kits you list and can give you more selection advice

[WarSim]

Thanks for your input. 

[Kremmen]

Regarding Spartans, i have had good luck with the XuLA boards from Xess http://www.xess.com/index.php, specifically the XuLA2.
What i like is a no frills dev board with std headers, that is easily attached to a proto board. Of course that precludes any high sped stuff, but otherwise a piece of cake. The XuLA2 has a Spatran 6 on board with all the really necessary auxiliaries, i.e. power, EEPROM, RAM. Additionally there is a PIC on board to do the housekeeping and clock generation, plus a SD header if you need to store massive amounts of data for an app.

[WarSim]

Regarding Spartans, i have had good luck with the XuLA boards from Xess http://www.xess.com/index.php, specifically the XuLA2.
What i like is a no frills dev board with std headers, that is easily attached to a proto board. Of course that precludes any high sped stuff, but otherwise a piece of cake. The XuLA2 has a Spatran 6 on board with all the really necessary auxiliaries, i.e. power, EEPROM, RAM. Additionally there is a PIC on board to do the housekeeping and clock generation, plus a SD header if you need to store massive amounts of data for an app.

Thanks for your input. 

You suggestion brings up a few questions.  I originally omitted the spartan6 for a few reasons, large pin count and non of the dev boards FPGAs with QFP versions. 

There are 2 Spartan6 QFP versions.  If I do develop with this XuLa2 board how hard is it to translate your design to a smaller chip?  This is for DIY (milled boards no mask) I would have to use the dev board as a daughter board.  Seems like kind of a waist.  Opinion?

BTW I like Xess's boards. Simple and effective.  I will have to investigate a way of obtaining them.  The internet is full on FOB shippers.  Found out the hard way FOB dose not guarantee delivery nor return on non-delivered packages.  Looks like they ship UPS DDU via UPS, with allows them to charge their brokerage fees to residential addresses.  Last time $150.00 brokerage fees for $75.00 software.  So from the states through UPS or FedEx it is DAP or DDP only.  Looking through their distributor list now. 

You mentioned high speed.  I assume high speed is over 10MHz, because I know 8MHz can survive on a breadboard.  I have no plans to exceed 10MHz on my milled boards.

[MacAttak]

The LX9 is the largest Spartan-6 that comes in QFP package. There are several minimalist dev boards out there with this chip. Sparkfun carries two of them (both use QFP versions of the chip, not BGA even though LX9 comes in both QFP and BGA): https://www.sparkfun.com/categories/136

That XuLA2 looks interesting though, with 2.5x the cells of the LX9 boards and a couple of PLLs where the LX9 has none.

[WarSim]

The LX9 is the largest Spartan-6 that comes in QFP package. There are several minimalist dev boards out there with this chip. Sparkfun carries two of them (both use QFP versions of the chip, not BGA even though LX9 comes in both QFP and BGA): https://www.sparkfun.com/categories/136

That XuLA2 looks interesting though, with 2.5x the cells of the LX9 boards and a couple of PLLs where the LX9 has none.

After searching for sources for all these fine boards I have decided to limit my choices to only companies that have clue about shipping. 

My list thus-far: Digikey, Mouser, Newark/Farnel, RPElec. 

Funny how these issues still abound in the USA after their President called for an increase in exports.  Selling internationally and can't ship properly is just silly.   

I think Altera is out, I was not impressed with any of their 3rd party partners. 
Xilinx has better partners, supporting what I am looking for.  Xess and Digilent.  Xess know about shipping (they stated their incoterms in their FAQ) but opts to hose the recipient.  Digilent show no shipping information but distributes through business who do know how to ship.  So Digilent/Xilinx wins. 

Thus-far the purpose for the Spartan6 and CoolRunnerII is interface and glue. 
What interfaces it can handle I don't know yet.  I do know I give up capability to stay in QFP, but yes I did miss the lack of PPL, I thought there was 2 .  What board I get will be based on the best information on what the Spartan 6 can do.  For example, if it can't be a display driver for a 320x240 LCD what's the point, I am doing that with a 16Mips PIC.  Pretty sure it can't do HDMI, but GigaBit LAN would be nice.  The most basic board is Nexys2/3 then Atlys, anything more I am convinced will be a waist.  No sense in having ports I will never be able to use with my chip options.  I could redirect to Spartan 3E but the chips seem to cost more and "seems" to be less capable.  Opinion?

Edit ::: Ok I have been searching too long.  The QFN Spartan3E is 1/4 the cost of Spartan6.  Sometime in this search I was redirected to Spartan6 for some reason but don't recall why.

ReEdit ::: I just stumbled upon the DLP-FPGA Spartan3E development module.  It's simple on and houses a QFP chip.  It seems to be similar to the Xess option I considered but no shipping hassle. 

The CoolRunner will be for much lower demands, with the benefits of less components.

[WarSim]

Thanks for your input. 

I decided not to search anymore. 
I ended up ordering
Digilent C-Mod for CoolRunner coming from Europe
Digilent USB-HS2 for programming
DLP Design DLP-FPGA for Spartan3E

I guess I will find out if I made a mistake.  I was holding off the order for my decision, which took longer than intended.  If I wasted some money at least I can get working on the waiting project again. 

[mikeselectricstuff]

Bear in mind FPGA boards (& devboards  in general) sell well on ebay so not a total loss if you don't use it.

[HardBoot]

I guess here's a good place to ask... anyone know a cheap FPGA board with 256+ MB of RAM and can push about 6GBps bandwidth? I can't find any that are more than a few MB RAM and 3GBps.

I don't need a monster FPGA, or even any notable amount of IO, I just want it for processing data.
I'll be interfacing it with an arduino to talk over internets.