SV: Re: [sdiy] FPGA Starter

[Magnus Danielson]

From: karl dalen <dalenkarl at yahoo.se>
Subject: SV: Re: [sdiy] FPGA Starter
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 23:00:42 +0200 (CEST)
Message-ID: <20060609210042.92265.qmail at web27607.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>

> 
> --- James Patchell <patchell at cox.net> skrev:
> 
> > Yes it is....
> > 
> > I would wait until Monday to purchase...see what you are getting into first
> > ;-)
> 
> Oh! Thats pleny lot for the money spent! Not bad at all infact!
> Hmm,what was it you said some time ago, build a FM synth? :-)
> 
> I feel tempted indeed!
> 
> Is there any other hidden constraints in the free software?
> Like max number of logic blocks compiled, etc?

There is a few quite open limitations in the WebPACK, it will not support all
the top devices, effectively all devices above a certain amount of "System
Gates" basically. This number keeps changing (upwards) so check out the WebPACK
webpages. There is a list of supported devices which gives a good hint. For the
supported devices, the differences between WebPACK and the full monty is
becomming less and less obvious. WebPACK these days is a pretty impressive
package and you can certainly do alot of damage with it. ;O)

There is a bit of a steep learning-curve for FPGA and VHDL, but once you got
your brains around it, you look quite differently on the world and the way we
solve problems in them. ;O)

Cheers,
Magnus