Digilent Spartan 3 board - Electronic Circuits Projects Diagrams Free

davidbball13 · 15th June 2008, 10:10 PM

hello i talked to my cuz today and i had no idea that he was an electral engineer. so he just finished collage and i get his old equipment. one of them is a Digilent Spartan 3 board

Digilent Inc. - Digital Design Engineer's Source

and i get this for free.
do any of you have it?
is it easy to program? and good documentation?
is it easy to use? even for someone completely new to microcontrollers?

Sceadwian · 15th June 2008, 10:43 PM

Absolutely not. That's like a fine mono filament blade in the hands of a wrestler, you're not gonna be able to do much with it but cut yourself in half. You need to learn VHDL or a similar language to program something like a Spartan 3 board. It's an FPGA, truly programmable hardware. If you want basic microcontroller experiance, dive in with a PIC or AVR, send me the Spartan 3!! I've already downloaded the development software for play I might actually abe able to use it =) The 'software' of an FPGA is actually logical blocks of real world hardware that can be routed and designed to perform functions similar to a microcontroller, only much much faster. An average PIc or AVR runs at an approximate speed of 20MHZ maximum. The Spartan 3 board you listed will hit 500+ mhz

**3v0** · 16th June 2008, 12:44 AM

There is a LA project that uses it.

ArtemisGoldfish · 16th June 2008, 01:31 AM

That's...Far, far beyond the kind of thing you're looking to do, like others have said, but if you want to give a whack at it, just try searching VHDL tutorials online, or find a book. I tried reading some, but they boggle my mind as of yet.

Or you could try to figure out how to program this PIC16C57-compatible IP core on it: MiniRISC core

davidbball13 · 16th June 2008, 08:13 PM

i am not going to give it to you it is a 100$ board!i dont know i might dabble with it but i dont think i will do much. or i will just sell it.

**3v0** · 16th June 2008, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidbball13

i am not going to give it to you it is a 100$ board!i dont know i might dabble with it but i dont think i will do much. or i will just sell it.

If you are going to get into the digital end of electronics in time you will want a LA. Why not keep the board and use it as such ?

If you do not have to make any major mods to the board to use as a LA you can also have it around to play with.

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15th June 2008, 10:10 PM	(permalink)
davidbball13	Digilent Spartan 3 board hello i talked to my cuz today and i had no idea that he was an electral engineer. so he just finished collage and i get his old equipment. one of them is a Digilent Spartan 3 board Digilent Inc. - Digital Design Engineer's Source and i get this for free. do any of you have it? is it easy to program? and good documentation? is it easy to use? even for someone completely new to microcontrollers?

15th June 2008, 10:43 PM	(permalink)
Sceadwian	Absolutely not. That's like a fine mono filament blade in the hands of a wrestler, you're not gonna be able to do much with it but cut yourself in half. You need to learn VHDL or a similar language to program something like a Spartan 3 board. It's an FPGA, truly programmable hardware. If you want basic microcontroller experiance, dive in with a PIC or AVR, send me the Spartan 3!! I've already downloaded the development software for play I might actually abe able to use it =) The 'software' of an FPGA is actually logical blocks of real world hardware that can be routed and designed to perform functions similar to a microcontroller, only much much faster. An average PIc or AVR runs at an approximate speed of 20MHZ maximum. The Spartan 3 board you listed will hit 500+ mhz __________________ "Because I be what I be. I would tell you what you want to know if I could, mum, but I be a cat, and no cat anywhere ever gave anyone a straight answer, har har." Last edited by Sceadwian; 15th June 2008 at 10:46 PM.

16th June 2008, 12:44 AM	(permalink)
3v0	There is a LA project that uses it. __________________ search engine for electronic parts Junebug USB PIC programmer kit., USB Bit Wacker, Homepage The 15 Minute Printed Circuit Board! (+drill time)

16th June 2008, 01:31 AM	(permalink)
ArtemisGoldfish	That's...Far, far beyond the kind of thing you're looking to do, like others have said, but if you want to give a whack at it, just try searching VHDL tutorials online, or find a book. I tried reading some, but they boggle my mind as of yet. Or you could try to figure out how to program this PIC16C57-compatible IP core on it: MiniRISC core __________________ <-- Feel free to IM me for random chit-chat and PIC assembly talk Adobe After Effects lets you save your work before it crashes, now THAT'S user-friendly.

16th June 2008, 08:13 PM	(permalink)
davidbball13	i am not going to give it to you it is a 100$ board!i dont know i might dabble with it but i dont think i will do much. or i will just sell it.