[Robotgroup] FPGAs Was " Parallax CD-ROMs"

[Robo Al]

I'm surprised I haven't heard about Xilinx. For a while I was looking
to get into FPGAs and I just gave up because I don't have the time, but
most of what I saw was Xilinx and Altera based.

In particular I liked what I saw at:

http://www.knjn.com (shop)
http://www.fpga4fun.com (projects)

I wanted to create a high speed analog and digital capture board that
would be able to handle 150 MHz signals with 2 analog channels and
8 digital channels. Unfortunately, I think my requirements are just
too difficult to accomplish in a cheap manner, considering I need to 
be able to handle communication signals over the AC line (ie. X10 like
but not X10). Basically I've given up on the whole thing for now.

Any of you with experience with Xilinx and any reason why they shouldn't
be used? They are readily available from Digikey/Mouser/Etc.

Alberto

On Fri, 2008-01-18 at 00:28 -0600, Andre Lamothe wrote:
> The new lattice tools rock. For CPLDs very good. I prefer using quartus for 
> FPGAs and Altera parts. But, the CPLD path with lattice parts is very easy 
> for people to learn and ABEL is very easy to pick up. But, the max stuff is 
> good as well, I have it, but seem to prefer the lattice parts in production.
> 
> Andre'
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "TomD" <TomD at hyperweb.com>
> To: "The Robot Group Mailing List" <robotgroup at puremagic.com>
> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 11:50 PM
> Subject: Re: [Robotgroup] Parallax CD-ROMs
> 
> 
> Ugh.. lattice tool chain.. I remember the horrible Synplicity tools,
> a bunch of DOS files strung together with .BAT files.
> They were OK for doing 22V10s , and some glue logic.
> 
> I got really spoiled using Altera and Max Plus, they have a Quartus free web 
> edition now.
> 
> for $ 49
> http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=39&No=215
> 
> For $150
> http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=39&No=83
> 
> 
> Amazing what you can do with Verilog.
> Even if you only write behavioral code, the compilers  can still synthesize 
> logic
> out of it that isnt too slow. (as opposed to RTL code which is like writing 
> circuits in code)
> Behavioral code is more like BASIC programming.
> 
> Or with Quartus, you can wire up circuits using 7400-series TTL logic 
> macros.
> Mix logic blocks with verilog or macros as you like.
> It's also got a nice simulator that works like a logic analyser with 
> waveforms
> that you can draw in a GUI.
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