Why did I choose Xilinx FPGA, why not brand X?

There are currently two big players in the FPGA market - Xilinx and Altera. Each vendor provides their own EDA tools and although they are talking the same language they are quite different (a bit like Eclipse vs Visual Studio). I had to pick one, and Xilinx’s tool set is the most approachable.

If you are bold, you could work through this material with a different vendor’s development board, but it will be challenging at times. It will be very much like following a Visual C tutorial when running Eclipse. Consider using that vendor’s quick-start material for the first couple of projects then jump back in a few chapters on.

The one place where you will really struggle is with using the simulator. The configuration and setup of the simulation tools differs greatly between vendors, with the Altera solution being tricky to set up.

Papilio One + LogicStart MegaWing

Designed by Gadget Factory, the Papilio One board is squarely aimed at someone who has had previous experience with basic electronics, owns a soldering iron, and quite possibly has a few Arduino microcontrollers kicking around. The Papilio One board holds the FPGA, a small serial ROM, a USB programming interface, and the required power supplies. It provides direct access to 48 general purpose pins on the FPGA through six 8-bit Wing connectors. Originally envisioned as an Arduino/FPGA hybrid, it is now used for projects such as software defined radio, emulating classic arcade games, and as a low cost way to experiment with FPGAs. The Papilio One board ships with the headers used for attaching the wings, but they are not installed. This gives you the added flexibility to embed the board in your own projects and most probably saves a little on cost as it simplifies packaging. When you solder on the headers, getting them aligned can be a challenge. An easy way is to use some snap off pin header strips to form a jig, which will hold everything nice and square while you solder the headers in place. 

The LogicStart MegaWing has been designed especially for people starting out with FPGAs, converting the Papilio One into something that matches the features and accessibility of the FPGA boards developed for the education market. When mated with a Papilio One, it adds a few nice extras that will appeal to the Papilio One’s target market, such as a small joystick, 8 channel ADC, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

Once you have outgrown the LogicStart MegaWing, Gadget Factory offers a range of other Wings that can be attached to the Papilio One to customize it to your future project’s requirements, and it has an active community of helpful users on the forums hosted by Gadget Factory.