Somewhat OT: FPGA Develpment Kits

[Brad Parker]

"Chuck Guzis" wrote:
>Not vintage, but closely related.
>
>Rather than write some emulation software, I'd like to see if I can 
>implement some simpler CPU designs in FPGA.
>
>I see various development kits out there with various capabilities 
>(I/O memory, displays, etc.).
>
>Is there any particular kit that stands heads and shoulders above the 
>others?  Is there a preference between Xilinx and Altera?

I use them both, but for some reason I prefer Xilinx.  It may be that
they are slightly easier to get via digikey.  They are often horseraced
by customers of mine (which is fun to watch).

I don't think you can go wrong with this for $89

  http://www.xess.com/

and if you want to get motivated, check this out

  http://www.opencores.org/projects.cgi/web/cpu8080/overview

Let me know when you boot the scelbi basic interpreter on a flat screen
vga :-)

I use several open source verilog interpreters to test code before I put
it in a device - cver and iverilog (er, ah, http://www.icarus.com/eda/verilog
and http://www.pragmatic-c.com/gpl-cver).  Work for me.  Modelsim on win32
is also really nice but not free.

-brad