Somewhat OT: FPGA Develpment Kits

[Philip Freidin]

On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 14:40:35 -0800, you 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'm just looking for some pointers here.
>
>Thanks,
>Chuck

There are many board vendors. Most are listed here:

    http://www.fpga-faq.org/FPGA_Boards.shtml

This type of stuff is regularly discussed in comp.arch.fpga

The web site http://fpgacpu.org/ is a somewhat dated collection of related
material, but importantly includes the three articles from Jan Gray that
were published in Circuit Cellar in 2000:

   http://fpgacpu.org/xsoc/cc.html

There is also a Yahoo group, but it is pretty dead.

The first CPU in an FPGA was designed by me in 1990, The RISC4005/R16.
It had flashing lights and paddle switches just like any other REAL computer.
The architecture was a 16 bit that looked a bit like the AMD29000 RISC.
Does it now rate as classic ?  :-)

Cheers,
Philip



=================
Philip Freidin
philip at fliptronics.com