Novice needs info

[Altera_Forum]

I've been asked to purchase some FPGA boards. I'm not exactly sure what they are and what I need. The only information I have is epm9560arc-240-10 v1.1 Can someone give me some direction? I'm administrative support at a hospital and we normally get our parts from Japan, but they've been marking it up 1000% so we've decided to source it elsewhere. Normally, we just get the parts and our techs install it, but with the FPGA boards it seems more complicated. 

 Do these FPGA boards come programed or do we need to program it? Any help would be appreciated.

[Altera_Forum]

I'm afraid you are stuck with your current supplier. Even if this were a standard board you still need the configuration for the programmable chip, which has probably been specifically designed for your application. The reference you gave is the one from the chip itself and doesn't give more information about the full board. 

Who is the supplier of this board?

[Altera_Forum]

We think the supplier is NDR in Japan, but I'm almost certain they get their boards from somewhere else then NDR programs it. I have not been successful in getting NDR to repond to my requests for quotes. We wanted to bypass our vendor and get it directly from them, but they are unresponsive. Any other ideas?

[Altera_Forum]

if you can get hold of one of the boards you already have, the markings could probably help identifying the supplier and model. But you will need to get the configuration that your supplier program in the boards anyway. 

Is it a commercial product, or was it something developed specially for you?

[Altera_Forum]

I'm not sure if it is a commercial product or not. Where on the board are the markings? Thank you so much for all your help!

[Altera_Forum]

It really depends on the board, every manufacturer put their markings at a different place. It is usually white text, slightly bigger than the small labels that identify all the components. 

If you are able to take a picture of the board and post it here, we may be able to identify it.

[Altera_Forum]

how do I post pictures?

[Altera_Forum]

you might need 5 posts first, but click the Go Advanced button (next to Post Quick Reply), then Manage Attachments

[Altera_Forum]

See attached pictures. 500012 is the actual FPGA board. I'm not sure if the other two (more pics to come) are also FPGA boards.

[Altera_Forum]

Here are pics of the last board.

[Altera_Forum]

It doesn't look like any general development FPGA board you can buy. A search for "Super Fast Logic Output" comes up with nothing so it's highly unlikely you'll find these from anyone but the original manufacturers.

[Altera_Forum]

Yes I agree, it unfortunately doesn't look like a generic board.

[Altera_Forum]

thank you all so much for your help. I very much appreciate it.