where do I start?

[Altera_Forum]

Hi every one 

 I want to learn how to use FPGAs but I don't know where to start or what should I study first. I know about microcontrollers but nothing about HDL or FPGAs. Does anybody knows a good resource to get started? any simple dev kit or a web page or a book? thanks

[Altera_Forum]

Do you know what you want to do with a FPGA? 

 Buy the CycloneII starter kit http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/405311-cyclone-ii-starter-kit-ep2c20n-dk-cycii-2c20n.html. Download Quartus II and build some of the examples.

[Altera_Forum]

Well that's a problem, I don't know what exactly I can do with an FPGA, I've read that you can program logic blocks in it and cores like coldfire 1. 

 So, can I put for example a couple of demultiplexers, latches, counters and logic gates? Can I put the logic circuit that I'm using to interface my microcontroller with a LCD?  What kind of knowledge is necessary to use FPGAs?

[Altera_Forum]

Almost everything that you can do with digital logic you can do in an FPGA. So yes, all of the examples you cited you can place in an FPGA. 

 As for necessary knowledge, it really depends on what you're wanting to do with the FPGA. The examples you cited would require basic knowledge of digital design and probably one HDL, like verilog. Knowing how to read the schematics of the dev board would be helpfull too. There's also some learning curve with Quartus II, but the basics are not difficult.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  Almost everything that you can do with digital logic you can do in an FPGA. So yes, all of the examples you cited you can place in an FPGA.   As for necessary knowledge, it really depends on what you're wanting to do with the FPGA. The examples you cited would require basic knowledge of digital design and probably one HDL, like verilog. Knowing how to read the schematics of the dev board would be helpfull too. There's also some learning curve with Quartus II, but the basics are not difficult.  --- Quote End ---    Ok I see, well I know how to read schematics, I design digital systems but using microcontrollers and I want to start using FPGAs because what I've read and what you just told me I could take one of this system and put everything in to one single chip and save a lot of space and money and also have a lot of more power to grow the design and functionality.  What I'm looking for is some basics to start with this journey, like a small not-very-powerful FPGA to experiment, to get started  I've heard about Nios II but I don't know if this is an FPGA or what and I don't want to buy a very powerful FPGA dev kit yet, I want to start with something basic to experiment, gain practice, knowledge and experience and then move to something bigger.  I've also seen the "BeMicro SDK", it's a small board but I don't know if this would be a good choice to begin.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  Well that's a problem, I don't know what exactly I can do with an FPGA, I've read that you can program logic blocks in it and cores like coldfire 1.  So, can I put for example a couple of demultiplexers, latches, counters and logic gates? Can I put the logic circuit that I'm using to interface my microcontroller with a LCD?  What kind of knowledge is necessary to use FPGAs?  --- Quote End ---  Given that you have a background in microcontrollers, its probably best to start off with FPGA-based microcontrollers. The Altera NIOS II processor is a microcontroller core that you can implement with varying levels of performance (and logic usage), and then add peripherals to its memory map. These peripherals are identical to the digital peripherals you'll find in a microcontroller, eg., timers, GPIOs, etc. What you will not find is analog functions, like DACs and ADCs (ok, that's not quite true as Microsemi has some parts, but lets stick to Altera here).  You should decide how much money you want to spend, then look at the Altera evaluation boards, and look at the Terasic web site (they build the university program boards). Look at some of the example designs targeting the NIOS processor, eg. they generally have a name like My First NIOS tutorial.  Once you have your board, and are running software on a NIOS core that blinks an LED using the pre-canned NIOS GPIO peripheral (Avalon-MM slave PIO), you can then move onto creating your own custom logic to attach to the NIOS bus, and then as you learn more you can replace the NIOS processor too.  When you get stuck, just ask questions here, there's lots of people to give you advice.  Cheers, Dave

[Altera_Forum]

As I said previously, the Altera Cyclone II starter kit is a good place to, well, start. If you want to put a microcontroller on the FPGA you can do that too, but it gets a bit more complicated (and I'm not an expert in this area). Nios is basically of software package that you can load into an FPGA that implements a microcontroller. You pay an additional license fee to use Nios in a product (over the cost of the chip). I'm not sure whether one can do this on the starter kit, but you can on the regular dev boards, lsuch as the Cyclone III board.

[Altera_Forum]

Just one more thing. What book do you recommend me to learn HDL? one with the basics would be great!! and that can be bought at amazon of something like that. Or free wuld be even better! :)

[Altera_Forum]

Here's a few kits to consider: 

 1. The Cyclone III starter kit $199:  http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/altera/kit-cyc3-starter.html  2. This kit is used as the baseboard to the Nios Embedded Evaluation Kit (NEEK) $449  http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/altera/kit-cyc3-embedded.html  3. The BeMicro-SDK $79   http://www.arrownac.com/offers/altera-corporation/altera-bemicro/  is a pain, since they put low-power DDR memory on the board, and you have to use an IP core from Microtronics to access it. I have one, but haven't bothered to test the DDR.  4. The Terasic DE0 $199  http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=56&no=364  This is a lot more for your $ than the BeMicro-SDK.  5. The DE0-Nano $79  http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=139&no=593  Again, this is probably a better board than the BeMicro-SDK.  I don't have this board, but I've seen plenty of discussions on this list. So you can search for people's experience with it.  Cheers, Dave

[Altera_Forum]

FYI: The Cyclone II starter kit is also known as the Terasic DE1 

 http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?language=english&categoryno=53&no=83  I've used several of the DE2 boards (slightly more expensive) and they are very nice boards.  Cheers, Dave