Spartan 6 Learner's board
The Reference Designer's REF0115V1 Spartan 6 evaluation board helps you to learn about FPGA. Using Xilinx tool you can use it learn Verilog. With this evaluation board you will be able to download your synthesised code into the board and see the action of your code in real.
Getting Started
You will need the following to get started with the REF0115V1 Spartan 6 evaluation board. 1. If you are not familiar with HDL we strongly suggest that you take a look at the verilog or VHDL tutorial offered on this site. You can also look at other websites or follow a book for that purpose.
2. Of course, the Spartan 6 Learner's board - available for only $45.
3. A programmer - preferably Reference Designer's XIFT1 - available for $25. You can also use the Xilinx USB Platform cable ( Model DLC9G) available for around $50. You can search for Xilinx USB Platform cable Model DLC9G and can get for under $30.
4. Xilinx ISE Design Suite. We have tested all the programs with Xilinx 14.4. So versions later than 14.4 should also work. It should also work with some versions earlier than the 14.4. Please note that the Xilinx ISE tool take a lot of time to download, so be patient.
Once you fulfill these 4 prerequisite, you are ready to move on to start having fun. In the following pages will will be creating a number of easy fun things to get you going on learning with evaluation board. You will learn not only the Verilog ( or VHDL) but also about the hardware design, system design.
The Spartixed evaluation board from Reference Designer has been released for sale and can be purchased
here . It is a very low cost $37 board and
will allow you to download the synthesized code on this board and you can see the verilog in action. For $55 you can purchase ann Spartan 6 Evaluation board plus a programmer.
We have put together the learning material for using the Spartixed here