[Noisebridge-discuss] FPGA hacking

[Dr. Jesus]

On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 4:50 PM, Lamont Lucas <lamont at cluepon.com> wrote:
>  On 10/6/10 4:26 PM, Dr. Jesus wrote:
>> On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 4:19 PM, Casey Callendrello<c1 at caseyc.net>  wrote:
>>>   I couldn't take advantage of them, but I'd love a class in how to use
>>> them. Is anyone here feeling teach-y?
>> I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.  That being said,
>> FPGA work is usually the sort of thing you learn over a semester:
>>
>>    http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs150/fa10/home.php
>
> I also recommend the http://www.fpga4fun.com/ site, which has a series
> of very short and simple tutorials.  Basics include flashing an LED and
> building a switch debouncer, while the intermediates include things like
> how to build or interface with JTAG or even PCI.
>
> The author also included a nice set of introductory texts and some
> verilog and vhdl tutorials.
>
> There's also some very cheap eval boards for a chip that merge a 32 bit
> ARM processor with 200k FPGA gates, a bunch of ram, and even flash
> storage for user stuff or to store the FPGA config in it:
>
> http://www.actel.com/products/hardware/devkits_boards/smartfusion_eval.aspx
>
> That's $99 from mouser, btw, and only requires a usb interface to program.
>
> I'd like to get back into it so need a small verilog project to start
> back up with.

Do you know of a way to get the tools for free or cheap?  I love the
Actel SmartFusion parts, but the licenses seem excessive to me for
hobbyist stuff.