FPGA Based Classic HP Core

[bkn42]

(03-31-2014 07:15 AM)eried Wrote:  So cool! Do you recommend papillo to learn fpga? What IDE do you use to code?

I really like the Papillo boards - I have the Spartan 3E (250k version) and the Spartan 6 boards. They are cheap with most of the FPGA's I/O connected to headers for easy access. Also, you don't need a sperate programming "pod" -- the Papillo boards have a USB to dual-serial interface. One serial interface to used to program the FPGA and the other can be used by your logic as a standard UART.

I use Xilinx's ISE WebPACK software for my hobby FPGA design work -- its impressive for free. (I'm using version 13.4 -- not the latest.) This includes an IDE that's good and I would recommend it for beginners. However, I don't use the IDE; I prefer to use the FPGA build tools via command line (and with make files). Also, I prefer to use my favorite text editor over ISE IDE's editor (although, its not a bad text editor -- I'm just not used to it).

Brian